Light
by NewWings
Summary: Naruko lives in darkness. She is hated by the villagers, ignored by her father, and has the kyuubi sealed inside of her. Her world has always been dark. And yet she smiles brighter than the sun because if you live in a world without light, make your own, and watch as it slowly lights up the rest of your world. AU. Final FemNaru pairing decided, but secret.
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is my first attempt at a fanfic. I thought that it would be **_**interesting**_**, to say the least, to write about what would happen if Naruto was a girl. I also decided to change things up a little bit, but I'll do my best to stick with the original storyline.**

**Disclaimer: I am just a random fangirl. Random fangirls do not own Naruto.**

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**Naruko's POV  
**

The villagers call me a witch. A curse upon the village. A demon child. The last one strikes me as hilarious considering my parentage. But then, it's also the one that hurts the most.

My mother was the kyuubi jinchuriki and died giving birth to me. Kurama says that he knew that childbirth was going to result in her death, even with the help of esteemed healer Tsunade Senju. In an act of self preservation, he moved the seal inside of her into me.

After my mother died, my father was heartbroken. He fell into a depression and was unable to perform his duties as Hokage. Eventually, the Third Hokage took over his duties for him. I don't think he has smiled since she died. I don't look a lot like her; my hair is white with streaks of red and my face looks the same as my father. We have the same eyes, though. Every time my father looks into my eyes, he looks like he's about to cry. Maybe that's why the villagers see me as the cause of his depression.

It's funny how much the villagers blame me for things that I didn't even do. I am officially the village scapegoat. Even when someone else turns out to be the culprit, the villagers still blame me for as long as they can get away with it. Sometimes, I pull pranks so that I can be blamed for something I _did_ do, for a change.

The Ninja Academy is also tiresome. I could easily be second in class if I wanted to, (I'd be first, but I have problems with clone jutsu) but if I do well, I get accused of cheating. Instead, I play a game with myself; I see how close I can get to failing without actually failing. My record is half a point.

I don't have any friends, either. The popular kids want nothing to do with me, while the unpopular kids claim that they aren't so desperate for friends that they want to be my friend. It's all right, though. I still have Kurama.

I guess Kurama can be called my best friend. He can be a bit overprotective, though. He hates the entire village for hating me. I tell him not to bother, that hating them does nothing. Kurama finds it odd that I don't hate them, despite everything. I have my reasons, which are:

1. It would be exhausting to hate them as much as they do me.

2. Hating them would be unproductive, and there are many more useful things that I can spend my time and energy doing.

3. One day, I will actually make friends within this village and get the villagers to accept me. I can't do that if I hate them.

4. Me hating them would result in me being lowered to their level and I would become the demon they call me.

For these reasons, I smile and stay cheerful. Some days, that smile is faked, but my spirit will not be broken. I will not cry. I will stay strong. I will not break.

Academy graduation is next week and my class will be divided into genin teams. Maybe I'll be able to call my teammates friends…

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**So, do you like it? Review and tell me what you think! Also, seeing as this is my first fanfic, I have absolutely no clue what genre this counts as. **


	2. Chibi CUTEness

**I'm so happy! I thought that I was talking to imaginary readers, but now that I know that somebody is actually reading this, I have been motivated to write another chapter today. (Note: I'm lazier than Shikamaru). Also, y'all may guess who the final Naruko pairing is, but I am NOT telling if you guess it right or wrong. However, I am putting up a poll to see who you think will be paired with Naruko. **

**Disclaimer: I am just a random fangirl. Random fangirls do not own Naruto.**

**Also:**

_Naruko mentally talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruko**

**_Kurama thinking_**

* * *

**Naruko's POV**

The first thing that a casual observer tended to notice about Konoha was the Hokage Mountain. Said Monument was currently covered in graffiti. I grinned, scrutinizing my artwork. _Not too bad. A definite improvement. What do you think Kura-chan?_

**For the thousandth time don't call me KURA-CHAN! **_My apologies, Kurama-dono. But what do you think of my MASTERPIECE? _**BWAHAHAHAHA! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY DID THAT! **Kurama barely managed to gasp that out before collapsing into a fit of laughter. **BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

I was so absorbed into listening to Kurama's laughter that I failed to notice the considerably angry presence behind me until it tapped me on the shoulder.

* * *

**Iruka's POV**

My day started going downhill when Naruko disappeared from the classroom. IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS! HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO LEAVE CLASS, IN THE MIDDLE OF A LECTURE, WITH NOBODY NOTICING YOU'RE GONE FOR TEN MINUTES!? And I called myself a ninja, when a twelve year old girl could sneak past me easily. Pathetic.

"Sensei! I think I know where Naruko is!" One of my students yelled out suddenly.

"Well, where is she then?"

"Um, you might want to look out the window."

Fearing the worst, I slowly turned around. Unfortunately, I was in no way prepared for the sight before me. The Hokage Mountain was covered in graffiti, and NARUKO WAS HERE was spray painted over the First Hokage's face. Hmm, I wonder who the culprit was…

I quickly excused myself from the classroom and headed straight for the scene of the crime. I found her sitting on a nearby roof, smiling contentedly as if she didn't have a care in the world. DID SHE HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE SHE HAD CAUSED? I walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She smiled her carefree smile up at me, until she saw the expression on my face. That smile then quickly faded to apprehension.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" I growled out threateningly.

"No, I honestly don't. Exactly how much trouble am I in?" Naruko asked, looking like the wide eyed picture of innocence.

I decided to scare her with a little bit of killing intent. 1 KI should be enough to unsettle her. I released 1 KI. No response. Frowning, I raised my KI up to 2. Nothing. I slowly raised it up until eventually, it got to 10. Any normal twelve year old would be quaking in their boots right now. She _yawned_.

"So are you going to keep staring at me, or answer my question? Exactly how much trouble am I in? Please be precise and don't just say a lot, because I know that already." I facepalmed.

* * *

**Naruko's POV**

I have absolutely no idea how much trouble I'm in. I don't think Iruka really knows, either. I tried asking him, but he just looked at me weirdly and dragged me back to the Academy. Then he assigned a test on transforming jutsu to punish the class for my actions.

Seriously, though? THAT'S his idea of a punishment? Meh.

"Chibi no Jutsu!" With that, I transformed into a cute chibi version of myself. Not like five year old kid chibi, but like anime character that is only a foot tall and CUTE doesn't quite cover it.

"Iru-sensei, I'm sowwy for what I did. Please don't punish the class for it," I said in my most utterly adorable chibi voice. It was working! I could see the struggle on his face as he did his best not to give in against the absolute cuteness. To seal the deal I widened my eyes and gave him a puppy dog look.

"Alright," he relented, "but Naruko, you ARE going to clean up the mess you made."

Well, at least I don't have to take a test.

* * *

**_The Next Day…_**

The final exams are today! I may be ranked last in the class, but that is 100% intentional. I still can't do clone jutsu (I practice daily, but I still can't get it), Kurama taught me something easier that I can use instead.

"The final exam is over… Clone Jutsu! Each of you must create at least 3 clones." _Thank you, Kura-chan. _**Meh.**

Before I knew it, it was my turn to take exam. (Why do we take it one at a time, anyways? How inefficient can you get?)

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" I somehow managed to make 3 perfect shadow clones. And Iruka's face? Priceless. His jaw was hanging open and his eyes bulged out rather comically.

"Y-your father taught you the Shadow Clone Jutsu?" Iruka stuttered. The air around me grew cold and my smile turned forced.

"I doubt that, because since my _father_ hasn't said any more than five words to me, I don't think that he would take the time to teach me such a _simple_ jutsu like this. If you must know, Kura-chan taught me it."

Iruka paled at the mention of Kurama.

"Well, regardless of who taught it to you, Naruko, I am proud to say that you passed!"

* * *

**For the sake of this story, I've invented the KI scale.**

**1 KI=mildly intimidating**

**5 KI=mild killing intent**

**10 KI=the minimum amount if you piss off a fangirl**

**It can go much higher than ten, depending on the person.**

**Also, THANK YOU TheBlackSeaReaper for Betaing this! **

**Please REVIEW!**


	3. Enough

**Chibi Naruko:NewWings is sorry she didn't update sooner! Please forgive her!**

**Y'all will forgive chibis, right?**

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**Naruko's POV **

"Naruko, I am proud to say that you passed!"

I passed! Grinning, I proudly tied my headband around my head.

**So you've graduated from being a brat into a **_**ninja **_**brat. Meh. **_Thank you for helping me pass, Kura-chan. Oh yeah, why did Iruka think that he taught me shadow clones?_**You don't miss anything, do you? I'll tell you some other time. Just be glad that you passed. I, for one, am glad you did. **_HA! So you ARE happy that I passed. _**Well, it would have been embarrassing if you failed. What would the world be coming to if the jinchuriki of the incredible me couldn't even make it as a ninja? **_You're just making excuses. Somebody's in denial. _**…**

RING! I was startled out of my conversation with Kurama when the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. The last day of school. I was never going to be a student here again. That decided it, then. I was going to go to my favorite place in the entire academy: the swing. I love that swing. There's something about it that draws me to it, for some reason. Whatever that reason is, I don't care. All I know is that I like that swing.

I had just sat down on the swing when the trap activated, and I found myself dangling upside down from the tree branch that the swing hangs from. As I struggled to get free, my headband came loose and tumbled to the ground. Just before it hit the ground, somebody caught it, and voices rang out;

"How exactly did _you_ manage to become a ninja?"

"I bet she cheated."

"Nah that would mean that she passed, and is going to become a genin. Who would want a demon like _her_ on their team? A witch like her would stab us all in the back as soon as we called her a comrade. I bet she stole the headband from somebody. Hey witch, who'd you steal the headband from?"

"I can't believe that the academy would graduate someone with such a rotten personality. Actually, I think that they didn't pass you. It was _you_ who had to steal your headband, not me."

"You little bitch. I am a ninja of Konoha, who behaves with honor, and does not need to stoop to such low a level as to steal." He moved over to hit me, but couldn't reach me because I was too far above him.

"Damn! Hey, you set the trap too high, you moron!" He attempted feebly to reach me, then gave up and resorted to yanking on one of my pigtails. Hard. I mentally cursed myself for letting my pigtails grow down to my waist. Those pigtails were going to get me into trouble one day. However, I couldn't quite bring myself to cut them. I liked having long hair. Long hair is really pretty and just fun to have in general. It can be a pain, sometimes. Like now. My long hair is definitely a pain right now. Literally and figuratively.

**That's enough. Naruko, I know you won't approve, but I'm taking over your body now to teach those brats a lesson. **_That's okay, Kura-chan. You don't need to. Really. _**Yes, I do. I am sick and tired of watching you let them bully you. I hate almost everyone, but I kind of see you as my baby sister, you know. There's something about you that I can't quite hate. But my point here is that I am stopping this nonsense once and for all. **_Please, don't hurt them, Kura-chan._

**Don't worry. I won't kill them.**

Suddenly, my vision turns red and I hear words coming out of my mouth.

**"Enough."**

* * *

**Iruka's POV**

"Well, Iruka, how did the class do? Did anyone fail the test?"

"Thankfully, no, Hokage-sama. I don't think anyone has ever failed the graduation exam. However, there is one thing that worries me. Naruko used the shadow clone Jutsu."

"Did Minato teach it to her? Has he finally gotten to his senses and out of that depression?" The death of his wife broke his heart and the third had always hoped that Minato would be able to smile again and resume his role as the fourth Hokage. Sadly, he never did. Even after twelve years.

"I know that's what you're hoping, but he didn't teach it to her. Kurama did."

"I didn't think that she knew that Kurama was sealed inside of her, let alone talked to her. Wait, did she call him Kyuubi or Kurama?"

"Well, technically she said Kura-chan."

"WHAT?!"

"Danzo! How long have you been listening?"

"Irrelevant. But this is a major problem, Hiruzen. The villagers hate that child, and she's been in contact with Kurama. Her mental state should probably be unstable, at best. At worst, she may decide to let Kurama take control and ATTACK THE VILLAGE. I suggest we have a Yamanaka check her mental stability NOW."

As if to prove Danzo's point, a huge wave of the Kyuubi's chakra could be felt by everyone in the room. The anger emanating from it was enough to make me shiver.

"Point taken, Danzo. I will place Itachi as the jounin leader of Naruko's team, to keep Kurama under control, should he decide to wreak havoc. However, the Sharingan can only suppress the beginning phases. Minato is the only one able to suppress a full out attack on the village by Kurama. I believe that it is also necessary to also get Minato's mental state checked, just in case."

* * *

**Itachi's POV**

Watching and doing nothing is one of the hardest things in the world. I was assigned to watch over the girl, and only to interfere if the Kyuubi began to break loose. Otherwise, she was not to know that I was watching her. Easier said than done.

I was watching every day as she was tormented by the other villagers. She never once cried or called out for help. Her smile never wavered. But it was not a fake smile that never reached the eyes. Her smile seemed so _genuine_, despite everything. I didn't know how she did it, but it impressed me. Some ANBU members would do much better on undercover missions if they could appear to show emotion that genuine. I was going to have to recruit her as an ANBU member one day.

I hear the school bell ring and join the throng of family members who have come to congratulate the academy graduates for earning their headbands. The girl is alone among them. She walks over to the swing and I watch as she triggers a trap and is left dangling by her ankles from a tree branch. Her brand new headband falls off. The perpetrators walk up to her and begin taunting her. One of them tries to hit her, but she is too high above them. They then resort to yanking on her candy-cane colored pigtails.

Something shifts about the girl. Her hair now seems less white with red streaks and more red with white streaks. Her eyes have also turned blood red. Then she speaks in a tone that chills, even me, a seasoned ANBU officer to the bone.

**"Enough." **Red chakra begins to swirl around her. She falls from the trap and lands gracefully to the ground. This is not the cheery little girl I was watching. This is the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi moves to attack her former bullies. I have to step in, before somebody gets hurt. Before I can make a move, the Kyuubi knocks them unconscious, and simply walks away.

"Onii-san, is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing, Sasuke."

* * *

_**Later…**_

"You called, Hokage-sama?"

"How is Namikaze Naruko doing?"

"Some of the Kyuubi's chakra broke loose today. The girl was being bullied by some kids. The Kyuubi attacked them. They were knocked unconscious and only had minor wounds. I followed the girl for the rest of the day, but no other trace of his chakra was released."

"Interesting. Itachi, what are your thoughts on being a jounin sensei?"

"I'm not going to have much of a say in the matter, am I?"

"No, not really. I want you to watch over her and gauge the full extent of Kurama's influence on her. However, this does not mean that you can neglect your duties as a jounin sensei. Understand?"

"Hai." So, I'm going to be a jounin sensei? This is going to be interesting.

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**Since Naruko was born with the kyuubi already inside her, the kyuubi attack never happened, so the Uchiha were never blamed, so the massacre never happened. So Itachi is good! Yay!**

**I was originally going to have Yamato be the jounin sensei, but then it occured to me that I could use Itachi, instead, since this was a non-massacre fic.**

**So, please review, everyone! I want to know what y'all think!**


	4. Keep Dreaming

**I hate typing. I'm really slow at it, and these chapters are over 1000 words. Just putting that out there.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned, don't you think Naruto would have actually happened tlike this?**

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_**The Next Day…**_

**Sakura's POV**

I wake up with a jolt. Today was the day that I was going to be assigned to the same team as Sasuke and he would see how amazing I am and fall in love with me and then. Wait a minute, Sakura, you're fantasizing. Everything depends on who I get for my teammates.

I see Ino walking to the Academy. She is NOT going to get there before me and sit next to MY Sasuke! How dare she? I start running to the academy. Ino sees me and seems to understand what I'm thinking.

"You are not going to beat me to MY Sasuke, Billboard-brow!"

"What did you say, Ino-pig?" We ended out racing to the academy. I won and went to claim my seat next to Sasuke. One seat over was that weird girl with pigtails that kind of reminded me of candy canes. Nobody really talked to her. Was her name Narumi?

Whatever her name was, her face lit up when I moved to sit next to her.

"Hi, want to be friends? I've never really had many friends, so you'd be my second friend, and my first female friend." Honestly, I couldn't care less about being her friend, and she was in between me and Sasuke. Even if I did sit next to Sasuke, if she was next to me she'd be bugging me and I couldn't talk to Sasuke.

"Move, you baka, I want to sit next to Sasuke!" I yell, and shove her to the side, leaving her to sulk. There. Problem solved. Or not. She jumps up on the desks and crouches right in front of Sasuke, studying him intently.

"What's so great about an annoying teme like you? I don't get it."

"Well of course a dobe like you wouldn't understand."

"Why you-"She was cut off when somebody elbowed her, causing her to lose her balance and kiss MY Sasuke. SHE KISSED MY SASUKE!

She pulled away quickly, and looked just as shocked as I was. The glare she sent him was venomous.

"What the hell, that was my first kiss! How could you steal something so precious from a girl?" What nerve! She should be proud that her first kiss was with somebody as amazing as Sasuke! Before I could reprimand her for this, Iruka came and instructed us to be quiet, so that he could announce the genin team assignments. We all hushed up immediately and waited with bated breath for him to begin.

"Okay now, team seven! Namikaze Naruko! Haruno Sakura!" Naruko looked over at me and grinned. I groaned. I was going to have to put up with Naruko?

"Uchiha Sasuke!" I looked over at Sasuke and grinned. This was going to be worth it. Step one of my get Sasuke plan: complete.

"WHAT? Why do I have to have Sasuke on my team?" Naruko complained.

"Naruko, it's because the teams are created to balance each other out. Sakura is the Kunoichi of the year. Sasuke is rookie of the year. You were dead last. If you had ranked better in the academy, you wouldn't have been paired with Sasuke." Naruko facepalmed.

"Yeah, I guess it wasn't the best idea to almost fail everything. Oh well." Naruko grinned brightly. The idiot made it sound as though she failed everything ON PURPOSE. Who would do that? She'd have to be dumber than I gave her credit for…

"Oh and the instructor for team seven is Uchiha Itachi!"

* * *

_**Later…**_

**Itachi's POV**

I looked over my team and smiled slightly. Internally, however, I was grinning. I had Sasuke on my team! I hadn't thought that the third would put him on my team, but he did. I made a mental note to thank him at some later date.

"So how about you tell me a little about yourselves. Just your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future."

"I'm Namikaze Naruko! My likes… Ooh! I like ramen! My dislikes, well, I did something earlier that I'm not proud of. It was necessary, but I disliked doing it." She fiddled with her forehead protector, which she had tied around her neck, most likely to keep it from falling off again. The expression on her face was slightly haunted. What could possibly be enough to make this girl lose her constant smile?

"But anyways," her smile had returned again as she switched to a more pleasant topic, "my hobbies are… Wait, what's a hobby?" Sakura facepalmed.

"A hobby is something that you do for fun in your free time," I explained calmly. Naruko turned as red as her bright red jumpsuit.

"Oh. Hmm, well, then I guess training would be my hobby. My dream for the future is not a dream because it WILL happen. I AM going to be the Hokage one day." She smiled brightly, but I did not doubt for a second that she was joking about her dream.

"Umm, my name is Haruno Sakura. My likes are…" she looked over at Sasuke and blushed. I stifled a groan. There was a fangirl on the team. Just my luck. "My dislikes are Naruko," she said, shooting a glare in Naruko's direction. Naruko didn't appear to really notice. "My hobbies are drawing, and my dream is to be with a special someone." She looked over again at Sasuke, and blushed. Again. Why do I have to have a fangirl on my team?

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like rice balls, and I dislike fangirls and people that score dead last." How more openly hostile to your teammates can you get, Sasuke? Do you even realize that these very people may one day save your life?

"I don't really have many hobbies, and my dream is to surpass Itachi." Keep dreaming, Sasuke.

"Well, I guess it's my turn, then. My name is Uchiha Itachi. I like peace and don't like war. My dream is to create a world without war." Naruko looked thoughtful when I said this.

"Umm, Itachi-sensei, a world without war is impossible, because there is fighting even in times of peace."

"That's a good point Naruko, but I'm talking about a world where villages don't declare war on other villages, and try to annihilate each other with thousands of innocent civilians in the crossfire."

"Also, there is a test that all of the new genin must take, and if you fail, you get sent back to the academy. There is a 66% fail rate." I wait a moment to allow that news to sink in. Sasuke and Sakura look horrified, while Naruko seems unaffected.

"The test is tomorrow morning at 9:00 at the training ground. Oh, and I wouldn't recommend eating breakfast tomorrow. If you do, odds are you'll vomit, and that would be _inconvenient_."

Unfortunately, I don't think that they have much of a chance at passing.

* * *

**The results of my poll so far are **

**Sasuke 2**

**everyone else 0**

**but please note that the results of the poll have NOTHING to do with the final pairing. I just put this poll up for my amusement so that I could watch y'all struggle to guess, cause I'm evil like that. ;)**

**Also, I changed Naruko's outfit from orange to RED. The reason: I HATE orange. Also, red goes with Naruko's hair better.**


	5. Help

_**Updated poll results!**_

**Gaara 4  
****Sasuke 2  
Shikamaru 2  
Kakashi 1  
Other 1**

**VOTE! (Final pairing has nothing to do with poll, but it's fun to have poll, anyway.)**

* * *

_**The Next Day…**_

**Naruko's POV**

I arrive at the training ground five minutes late, to find everyone already there and waiting. Sakura shot a dark glare at me. I smiled and waved back at her.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, I shall explain the rules. You will come at me with intent to kill and try to take these bells from me." Itachi held up three bells. They jingled slightly in the wind.

"But what if we actually kill you?" Sakura asked, looking horrified.

"You won't. And if you do not get a bell by noon, you will fail the exam and be tied to one of those posts." He pointed to three posts. "Also, if you fail, you won't get lunch." Right on cue, Sakura's and Sasuke's stomachs growled. Sakura looked over at me suspiciously when my stomach didn't also growl.

"Naruko, did you eat breakfast?"

"Yep."

"Was that the reason you were late?" I didn't like where this was going.

"Maybe?"

"Itachi-sensei said _specifically _not to eat breakfast, and you kept us waiting because you were selfish enough to eat breakfast? Give me one good reason why you kept us waiting to eat breakfast?" Now, _that_ I could handle.

"Dad made breakfast."

"So? My dad also made breakfast, but I skipped it anyways. Now give me an actual reason." Her dad also made breakfast, but she _skipped _it? How ungrateful! I dropped my smile, and let Sakura see a fraction of the darkness that it warded off.

"Do you have any idea how much you take for granted?" My voice is dangerously low now. I can see that I have scared her, so I smile brightly at her.

"But in all honesty, I bet you're just jealous that I ate breakfast and you didn't." Sakura glared at me, but didn't argue. Looks like I pinpointed the source of her anger.

_Am I selfish, Kurama? It was because of the selfish thing I did yesterday that he made breakfast, which I selfishly ate, and I inconvenienced everyone because of it. _**NO. You are not a selfish person, Naruko. Sometimes I find it sickening how self**_**less **_**you are.**_ But the only reason that I did THAT yesterday is because I wanted Dad to stop moping and notice me, for once. _**There is nothing selfish about a daughter who wants the attention of her father. If anything, you should have done it sooner.**

* * *

_Flashback: Yesterday Morning_

_After Kurama intervened yesterday, I couldn't stop wondering if I was always going to be unable to stand up for myself, to the point where Kurama does it for me. I don't want that to be all that the future has in store for me. I refuse to accept that .If my world won't change on its own, I'll change it myself. And I know exactly where to start._

_I tie my forehead protector around my neck. I am not going to let it fall off again. I take a deep breath to prepare myself mentally for what I am about to do. If I don't do this now, I am definitely going to chicken out. It's now or never._

_"Henge!" I hoped that I hadn't made a grave mistake. I walk over to my father and tap his shoulder. He looks up at me, surprise registering on his face._

_"K-Kushina?" For a moment, he looks happier than I have ever seen him in the twelve years of my life. What I am going to next is going to break his heart, and quite possibly mine as well._

_I slap him across the face._

_"Stop it, Minato. I have been dead for twelve years. TWELVE YEARS! And yet you act like I just died yesterday, and you've let yourself go as well, completely neglecting your duties."_

_"I am not good enough to serve as Hokage."_

_"So you dump all of those duties on an old man, who was looking forward to retiring? Just because you don't think you're good enough? And let's not forget the other things that you've neglected. At least you had someone to take over your duties as Hokage. But what about your duties as a father? Or a parent, for that matter? Your DAUGHTER is the reason that this place is still livable and is not completely rundown. She has done all of the cooking, cleaning, and she is the one who also makes sure that you eat. Have you ever thanked her? Or even TALKED to her? She has been an orphan since her mother died because it seems that her father also died, as well. She was left to fend for herself and one other person *cough Minato cough* because of your MOPING. Wake up. She's twelve now, and a genin. She will go on missions and maybe even DIE on one. You know better than anyone how that can happen. If she dies, will she even know that you cared about her?" I've said more than I've intended to, but I think he gets the point._

_I turn on my heels and leave the room, not daring to glance back at the hurt expression on his face. I feel like a huge weight has left my chest. Who knew I had that much to vent? I remember the hurt that came from me venting, and that weight is replaced by my guilt. If my venting hurts somebody else but helps me, then what right have I to vent?_

_If that is the case, then I don't want to do that again. I'll just keep everything bottled up inside of me, where it can hurt no one._

_The next morning, he made breakfast, and asked me to please call him Dad. I eat it happily, but I also feel guilt gnaw at me. I didn't make him feel better for him. I did it for me._

* * *

_End Flashback_

"Let the test begin." Sakura and Sasuke run off and hide.

"Aren't you going to hide too?" Itachi looks genuinely curious.

"That would be pointless, considering the fact that you know exactly where they're hiding. It'd be much simpler to charge at you head on." I run at him, only to trip and fall flat on my face right in front of him. I bend down to tie my shoes, so that I won't trip again. Now, to try again. I spend the next half hour trying to fight him, but maybe it wasn't the best idea to take on a jounin on my own. I run off into the bushes to retreat. And to think. What was the real purpose of this test? No genin should be able to get the bells, and they only had a slight chance if they were working together. If they were working together… That's it! I run off to find Sasuke.

"Hey Sasuke, wanna work together?" He jumps. I smirk a little.

"We won't get the bells if we work individually, and from what Itachi has seen of us so far, he won't be expecting this. Now come help me convince Sakura. It'll be easier if you ask her to team up." As I predicted, Sakura was all too eager to help. We team up against Itachi, but there are only 15 minutes left until noon, and we tried our best, but couldn't get to the bells.

"You… pass!" Sakura and Sasuke look confused, so I decide to elaborate for them.

"The test wasn't about the bells; it was about whether or not we could work as a team." Itachi smiles at this.

"Looks like I've been found out. None of the genin ever manage to actually take one of these." He holds up the bells.

"Um, Onii-san?"

"I'm your sensei now, Sasuke. Please just call me Itachi-sensei."

"Itachi-sensei, where's the third bell?" I keep a poker face as Itachi and Sakura realized that one of the bells is missing. All eyes turn to me. I look at everyone innocently. Finally, Sasuke speaks.

"When did you take a bell?" I reach down and pull the bell out of my shoe. Sasuke looks at me disbelievingly, and then slaps me.

"What are you playing at? You led us on! Why did you help us when you had already passed? Did you think that we are so weak that we couldn't pass without _your_ help?" **Ungrateful bastard. **_Yes, but he's right. I did lead them on. I should have let them try to pass on their own._

Fingering the bell, I grab my lunch and walk away from the field. _I've learned my lesson for the day, Kura-chan. I will never openly help anyone unless I am asked again._** You left yourself two loopholes, you know.**_ Yeah, I know._

* * *

**The next update is probably going to be slower because school is evil. If it takes too long, I'll have Chibi Naruko in all of her cuteness apologize for me.**

**REVIEW! I AM NOT A PSYCHIC MIND READER, BUT I STILL WANT TO KNOW WHAT EVERYONE THINKS ABOUT THIS, AND WAYS THAT I CAN IMPROVE FUTURE CHAPTERS!**


	6. Apology

**Did ya miss me? Sorry I didn't update. It was due to a very unfortunate series of bad luck, but on the bright side school ends on the 31st so I'll be able to update more then. Yaaay!**

**On a side note, I am going to give y'all a hint every 25 votes I get on the poll. As stated before, said person may not even be on the poll. The poll is only the result of your guesses and anti-guesses. (Seriously, WHY do more people say ****_I hope it's not so-and-so_**** than actually guess!) The current results are:**

**Gaara 5  
Sasuke 3  
Shikamaru 2  
Matatabi 2  
Kakashi 1  
Other 1**

**11 votes until the next hint!**

* * *

** Itachi's POV**

"You… pass!" Sasuke and Sakura look perplexed by this. Naruko rolls her eyes and explains to them.

"The test wasn't about the bells; it was about whether or not we could work as a team." I smiled a little. She was intelligent, and managed to get this uncooperative team to work together. I honestly hadn't thought that they would manage it, but it seems that Naruko managed to get everyone to work together well.

"Looks like I've been found out. None of the genin ever managed to actually take one of these." I hold up the bells. Sasuke's eyes widen slightly.

"Um, Onii-san?"

"I'm your sensei now, Sasuke. Please just call me Itachi-sensei." I need him to understand that while I am his older brother, I won't be playing favorites.

"Itachi-sensei, where's the third bell?" I take a moment to count the bells. Then I count again, just to make sure. Everyone turns to Naruko, who has a suspiciously innocent look on her face. Sasuke breaks the silence.

"When did you take a bell?" She reaches down and pulls the bell out of her shoe. The only time I saw her reach for her shoe was after she tripped and tied her shoelace. But what if she tripped to distract me and stole a bell then? If that was the case, then she pretended to tie her shoes and took the opportunity to hide the bell in her shoe. Then she fought me for a while so as not to arouse suspicion and led me to believe that she was incapable of getting a bell. After that, she seemed to tire and strategically retreat, but in reality she was making her getaway. The girl was cunning that much was obvious.

Sasuke seemed to follow my train of thought, but he didn't seem to believe that she could've done that. He takes a step forward and slaps her.

"What are you playing at? You led us on! Why did you help us when you had already passed? Did you think that we are so weak that we couldn't pass without _your_ help?" I wince inwardly. He just destroyed any immediate chance of friendship or trust between the team members. There has to be a limit to how proud he can get. I knew Sasuke was proud, but I didn't think he was _that_ proud. To slap a teammate after she helps him. Absolutely idiotic.

Naruko looks hurt and saddened by what he has to say. She picks up her lunch and trudges out of the training field. I look over at Sasuke disapprovingly.

"You do realize that you have to go and apologize to her, right?" Sasuke and Sakura immediately start protesting.

"But Sasuke-kun didn't do anything wrong! Why should he have to apologize when it wasn't even his fault!?" Sakura started screeching at me indignantly. Kami, her voice was loud. It kind of reminded me of a banshee. A hot pink banshee. Hn. Why do I find the idea of that amusing? Most likely because it is.

"The banshee fan girl is right, for once. I did nothing wrong." See, what did I say? Her voice really WAS banshee-like.

"Yes, Sasuke, you did. Naruko has been nothing but kind to you and Sakura, yet both of you have cast her aside, like garbage. She is your COMRADE, and you have to apologize to your comrades after you hurt them."

Sasuke rolls his eyes and mutters "Fine" and tromps off after Naruko.

"Oh, and tell her that training is tomorrow at training ground seven at six thirty." Sasuke nods to acknowledge my statement and continues slowly after her.

* * *

**Naruko's POV**

**Brat. **I was startled by Kurama's voice, and the seriousness of it. _What is it Kura-chan? And didn't I tell you not to call me Brat? _**Didn't I tell you not to call me Kura-chan? **_Point taken. But what is it? _**I'm going to be blunt here. As my jinchuriki, you get some of my powers. I hate mine, and I knew that it would probably drive you insane, so I decided to withhold it until you became a ninja. I want to ask you if you want it or not.**_ It would be easier to decide if you would actually tell me what this ability is._** The ability to sense emotions. **_How is that a bad thing? _**Let me explain, and you'll understand. What us empaths feel the strongest are negative emotions and feelings directed towards us. **_Oh._ With those two conditions, I'd have gone on a sort of sensory overload and went insane. _Thank you for keeping me from that. I probably couldn't have handled that. Is it hard keeping all that back?_** Yeah. So?**_ And you've been keeping this back for twelve years._** I know where you're going with this, brat, but don't. You are NOT accepting this because you feel SORRY for me. **_Well, what reason would be a good one, then?_** I don't know, but I don't want you to accept this curse for the sole reason that you feel sorry for me. **_I can handle it, Kura-chan. I already know that everyone hates me. What's the worst that can happen? _**You go insane or end out bitter, hating everyone who hates. **_Like you, you mean?_**… **_Don't worry, I can handle it. I promise I won't end out like you. And you know that I keep my promises._** This may seem a little overwhelming, at first. Take a few days to get used to it before experimenting because if you do, I can guarantee that you will get a massive headache.**

Suddenly, the world shifted in perspective. I could sense the happiness and sorrow of each villager individually. I could probably focus on one specific villager, but I didn't really know anybody well enough to try to find them specifically. One day, maybe, but definitely not anytime in the near future.

As I walked down the street, the villagers turned to glare at me. I flinched as I felt their intense hatred directed at me. Kura-chan was right! Sensing this was intense! Note to self: Thank him. Repeatedly.

A particularly intense hatred towards me was approaching. Whoever it was coming from definitely HATED me. As in they hated me as much as some of the villagers that hurt me the most. Only one real option, then. I jump up onto the rooftops and release every single one of my resistance seals. I start running and use wind chakra to speed me up. There is probably only one person who can catch me now. Although, to tell the truth, nobody has ever caught me.

* * *

**Sasuke's POV**

I started off after Naruko. Why do _I_ have to apologize to _her_? I am an Uchiha. Uchihas don't apologize because they are never at fault. She should be apologizing to me! And WHY do I have to tell her about the training. What am I, a servant?

I soon catch sight of her. She has an odd expression on her face. Fear? Possibly. She jumps up onto the roof. THE ROOF! Naruko then disappears, like a ghost. How was I ever going to find her now? I obviously wasn't.

In that case, I probably won't be able to tell her about training tomorrow or suffer her presence during training. What a _pity_. It would be so _unfortunate_ if she didn't show up. Oh well.

* * *

**_The Next Day…_**

**Naruko's POV**

I wake up at about six and decide to head off to my usual training ground. I liked training ground seven because it was always empty and I could train undisturbed. Five minutes later, I was at the training ground. I warm up quickly and started on the new jutsu I've been working on.

It all started when Iruka tried to teach me a basic chakra control exercise. I had to use my chakra to stick a leaf to my hand. He explained that if I didn't use enough chakra, the leaf would fall off. But if I used too much, the leaf would fly off. After several tries, I couldn't get it, so I improvised. Instead of using chakra to make the leaf stick to my hand, I made it hover. I based this new jutsu off of this principle.

I sat down cross-legged in the middle of the clearing. I focus my chakra and rise a foot or so above the ground. Time for the tricky part: standing up. To do so, I had to readjust all of my chakra to my feet without sinking. Sound simple? It's not.

I surprise myself by getting it perfectly this time. Lately I had been sinking less and less but this time I didn't fall at all. I beam happily at nothing in particular and spin around for the fun of it to find Itachi, Sakura, and Sasuke staring at me wide-eyed in shock.

* * *

**Naruko's ability is based loosely off of cannon and is NOT the result of my random delusions.**

**I accidentally deleted part of this chapter, but I think this turned out better than the original. I did have a month to work on it, after all. Hmmm... *Laughs evilly***

**Review to motivate me to update sooner!**


	7. Strength

**I'm back! And now it's summer, so I have LOTS of spare time on my hands! I will now be able to update MUCH mor frequently than I have been.**

**Poll results from my profile:**

**Gaara 8  
Sasuke 4  
Matatabi 4  
Shikamaru 3  
Other 2  
Kakashi 1**

**Total 22**

**Aww... So close and yet so far. If I didn't know better, I'd think that y'all WANTED it to be a complete surprise. I know I don't want that, though. I get a sadistic pleasure at watching y'all blindly guess in the dark. None f you could be right and the pairing could be something completely unexpected. Or ALL of you could be right and it could be a reverse harem centered around Naruko. Y'all will never know. Well at least not until it's glaringly obvious who I'm pairing Naruko with. It might take several chapters until I get to that point, just so I can have my fun with this.**

**My friend CianaTheRabbit thinks that the reviewers here are kissing my ass- her words, not mine- and is preparng to sink her cynical claws into my story. This is going to be _interesting_, to say the least. And quite possibly humorous.**

* * *

**Itachi's POV**

Sasuke and I start off towards training ground 7 to find Sakura waiting for us right outside the compound. She tackled him, but he didn't seem too bothered. In fact, he seemed to be in an unusually pleasant mood today. Sakura continued chattering at him cheerfully, completely ignoring the fact that he didn't care.

I smile contentedly I'd always wanted to be a jounin sensei, but I was always too busy on ANBU missions to have the time. In a way, this was a gift from the Hokage. What could be better than being Sasuke's sensei?

Suddenly, I notice that Sakura has stopped chattering. I look around. We've arrived at the training ground, and we're not alone. Naruko has already arrived at the training ground and has finished warming up. Or rather, she's about to finish her warm up. I signal at Sasuke and Sakura to wait quietly.

Naruko has now completed her little warm up routine. She hasn't appeared to notice us yet and sits down in the middle of the clearing. Is she meditating or something?

To Sasuke's and Sakura's apparent shock, she rises a foot above the ground. A FOOT ABOVE THE GROUND! I activate my Sharingan and watch.

The secret to the trick is that she's using her chakra to push her off the ground. What Naruko is doing is just a simple chakra control exercise, albeit a highly exhausting and impractical one. Her mobility is limited, as it would take a lot of chakra control to be able to change positions without falling to the ground.

Which appears to be exactly what Naruko is trying to do. Except she didn't fall. Or even waver slightly. Naruko laughs gleefully and spins around. The smile freezes on her face when she spots us.

"So you saw that, then?" Naruko asks in a small voice. I nod. Upon my doing so, she visibly deflates. Or rather, she slowly lowers herself to the ground.

"So now that we're all here for team training-" Naruko cuts in before I even have a chance to finish.

"There was training today?" Naruko looks really confused.

"Yes, there was. I sent Sasuke to tell you." Naruko slightly cocks her head to the side.

"That's weird because I never saw him." We all turn to Sasuke. He glowers at us.

"I was _going_ to tell her, but the moment I caught up with her she jumped onto a roof and vanished. I didn't know what happened to her, so I was unable to relay the news to her." Naruko nods in acceptance.

"It's a good thing I got up early to train, then. I might have missed training. But what was it you were saying Itachi-sensei? I kind of interrupted." Naruko grins sheepishly.

"Alright, then. As I was saying. Today the main point of training is to determine your strengths and weaknesses so that we know where to start from. Do any of you know any of your strengths and weaknesses?" Naruko raises her hand.

"I know what my abilities are, and I've watched the others in the Academy, so I know what their basic stats." Sasuke looks over at Naruko critically.

"And what if we held back?" It was a fair point. I mentally applauded Sasuke for pointing it out.

"Good point. But neither of you did. And before you ask how I know, I'll tell you. You are too proud to even consider holding back in class and you often show off to prove to the other students your superiority as rookie of the year. And it probably never occurred to Sakura to do anything less than her best. I will now begin my analysis."

"Uchiha Sasuke. Strengths: Ninjutsu and taijutsu. Has genjutsu potential, but doesn't see what genjutsu has to do with strength and believes it useless. Pretty stupid, considering his older brother is a genjutsu master. Has good chakra control, but it isn't perfect. Has large chakra reserves for a fresh Academy student, no doubt due to frequent training with his jounin brother. Has not yet unlocked the Sharingan, but he should work on speed and reflex training so his body can keep up with his eyes. He's fast, but not fast enough. If I were to hazard a guess on his elemental nature, I would say a primary nature of lightning and secondary nature of fire." So Sasuke thought genjutsu was useless. I'll have to change that. Maybe torture him. Extensively. Until he changes his mind. But Naruko's analysis seemed fairly accurate. I'll have to test his lightning affinity, to see if Naruko is right or not.

"Haruno Sakura. Strengths: Book smarts and genjutsu. Has high chakra control and would excel under the fields of medical ninjutsu if given proper tutelage. Weaknesses: Extremely weak in taijutsu because has wasted time dieting and has spent more time using beauty products than training. As a result is physically weak and has lower than average chakra reserves. Also unsuited to ninjutsu due to aforementioned conditions. Most probable elemental affinities are a primary nature of fire and a secondary earth nature." Good to know. I need to test her current genjutsu abilities just to be sure, though. Not that I don't doubt Naruko.

"Namikaze Naruko. Strengths: Taijutsu, ninjutsu, and Fuinjutsu. Extremely large chakra reserves. Very high speed and stamina. Jounin level sealing skills. Low genjutsu potential because chakra reserves are too high and make basic chakra control exercises, such as the bunshin next to impossible. Primary nature of wind with a secondary of water." She could be exaggerating, but I have a feeling she's understating herself. Sakura looks indignantly at Naruko.

"Why are you making it sound like you're better than Sasuke-kun?" Sakura screeches at Naruko. Naruko meets her gaze and replies evenly.

"The reason I sounded to you like I was better than Sasuke is because I am better than Sasuke." This comeback enrages both Sakura and Sasuke.

"Hn. A dobe like you thinks you're better than me. How about a spar, to put you in your place, like we did in the Academy?" Naruko smirks. Sasuke wouldn't know this expression, but I have heard of it. It's the same expression the Yellow Flash wore before entering a battle field and defeating thousands of high ranked enemy ninja. I'm tempted to warn Sasuke, but I really want to see how this will play out.

"You're on, Teme."

* * *

**Hiruzen's POV**

I am working on the usual mountain of paperwork when I hear a knock at the door. I look up expectantly. Minato walks in with a determined look on his face, and there is a new strength in his eyes. I rub my eyes to make sure I'm not dreaming. He's still there. So I'm not dreaming, after all. Since this is reality, I send a quick prayer to Kami, thanking him fervently and asking that Minato ask what I desperately hope he will ask.

"I would like to resume the role of Hokage. Is it still open?" I chuckle softly. He certainly got straight to the point.

"Yes, the job is still open. You can start right now. Your first task? Paperwork." I grin evilly up at him. Let him do the paperwork for once! I am never doing paperwork again. I'll finally retire and take care of my grandson, never doing so much as one form again! Finally!

Just then, a messenger comes into the room, panting.

"Hokage-sama! The Dem-I mean Namikaze Naruko has stolen the scroll of sealing!"

* * *

**I've just realized how much I LOVE leaving my chapters off at a dramatic point. It's really fun, actually.**


	8. Torture

**Well, there are finally 25 votes on my poll. Hint time! The person I am pairing Naruko up with... Is male! And don't say that this isn't a hint because I have always referred to him in gender ambiguous terms until now. But the next hint is a bit less vague. Poll results that I almost forgot to give:**

**Gaara 9  
Sasuke 4  
Shikamaru 4  
Matatabi 4  
Other 2  
Kakashi 1  
Itachi 1**

* * *

**Itachi's POV **

"Itachi-sensei, will you referee the fight?"

"Sure, Naruko. Of course." Sakura and I take a couple of steps backwards to get out of the way. Meanwhile, Sasuke taunts Naruko.

"You know what? I'll hold back for this fight. No sense in going full power when you can't even defeat me at half strength." Naruko looked like she'd just about had enough. Her eye was beginning to twitch slightly. I sincerely hoped for Sasuke's sake that he wouldn't continue taunting Naruko. If he didn't, he would learn the hard way the number one unwritten rule of male shinobi: never EVER piss off a kunoichi. Especially one with Uzumaki or Senju blood. Those were some of the most dangerous. I paled as I remembered who Naruko's mother was. That was a woman you did not mess with AND she was part Uzumaki and Senju. Naruko seemed to have a milder personality, thankfully. But then, wasn't it always the quiet ones who were much more dangerous than the loud ones that were enraged easily?

In all my time watching over Naruko, The closest I ever saw her come to snapping was on Academy graduation day, when those bullies had cornered her and started pulling on her pigtails. She probably just didn't like insults directed at her hair. So as long as Sasuke didn't make a jibe at her hair, he was fine. I hope.

"Why is your hair so ridiculous, anyways? I didn't even know it was possible for someone to have not one, but _two _improbable hair colors. And in those pigtails, it just looks like you have two candy canes attached to your head!" Damn.

"Yeah!" Sakura chimed in. Really, Sakura? Don't you get that you're only making the problem worse?

"First of all you," Naruko pointed at Sakura, "stay out of this. Your hair is pink. People with pink hair have no room to comment about other people's hair color. Secondly, my hair is red. A lot of my chakra is transferred into the seal that holds uhh a certain someone back and as a result, the effort drains a lot of the pigment out of my hair. And lastly, Sasuke, my hair is neat. Your hair is comparable to a duck's butt. So don't ever insult my hair, or I will make you wish you were dead so that you could escape the torture that I am giving you." Well at least she didn't snap.

"Bitch," I heard Sasuke mutter under his breath. Naruko also appeared to have heard it.

"Itachi-sensei, can you start the match now?" Naruko asked sweetly in a tone that said 'do it now or you're next.' I feel a momentary pang of betrayal for leaving Sasuke on his own here, but he dug his own grave here. Also, I _really_ don't want to be in line for Naruko's rage.

"Let the match begin!" I really hope Sasuke doesn't hold back. He's in real danger here.

Naruko mutters release. For what I don't know. Genjutsu? Seals? Who knows? She disappears and a cyclone begins forming around Sasuke. As suddenly as it starts, it stops and Sasuke has been hogtied by Naruko who holds him by a cord of rope. She shoots up to a tree branch extremely high above the ground and ties the cord around the branch so that Sasuke is now dangling upside down by his ankles. How much chakra does it take to be able to rise that far above the ground? I doubt that I could rise up as quickly and easily as she does.

Naruko drops down lightly on her feet. I think Sasuke has learned his lesson now. An ANBU shunshins towards us.

"Namikaze Naruko, you are the prime suspect for stealing the Scroll of Sealing. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Naruko blinked.

"What's the Scroll of Sealing?" Naruko cocks her head to the side slightly.

"Do not play dumb with me. The Scroll of Sealing contains several forbidden jutsus and S class secrets. You are the prime suspect as you have performed one of the forbidden jutsus in the window between when the scroll was last seen and when it was report missing."

And how big was this window anyways?"

"The scroll was last seen right before the academy exams and you are reported to have used a forbidden jutsu in the exams."

"Wait, shadow clones are forbidden? That's dumb! They're ridiculously easy!" Wait, did Naruko just call an A-Ranked jutsu _easy_?

"As you are the prime suspect, it is my duty to escort you to the Torture and Interrogation department so that we can learn the location of the scroll." Naruko nods.

"Let's go, then! But I do have to warn you, I honestly didn't steal the scroll." Naruko beams at the ANBU and skips off to be tortured. Who would do that? Apparently Naruko. I decided at that moment to expect anything from Naruko, the world's most unpredictable ninja.

* * *

**Ibiki's POV**

I. Am so. Boooored. Since it's currently peacetime, T&I gets little, if any, work to do. The closest I get to torturing anyone nowadays is when I proctor the chunin exams. It's pretty sad that the closest I really get to entertainment is playing mind games with a bunch of brats that think they're ready to become chunin. They usually aren't by the time I'm done with them. I have noticed that once I started proctoring, Sarutobi has stopped bugging me about being a jounin sensei.

"Morino-san." I looked up. Someone to torture at last?

"This is the prime suspect for the theft of the Scroll of Sealing and we need to interrogate her to find out where she hid it." We meaning me, of course. I take a closer look at the suspect. A fresh genin wearing an impossibly red jumpsuit and red and white hair. Namikaze Naruko. I've never actually seen her before, but she's one of those instantly recognizable people. Similar in concept to Might Gai. There's something off about her, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Then it hits me. Most people who are about to be tortured are terrified in some form or another, but this girl isn't. She's CHEERFUL. She knows she's about to be tortured and she's CHEERFUL.

"Hello Morino-san! I'm Namikaze Naruko! I didn't steal the scroll but apparently I'm the prime suspect! Have fun torturing me!" Did she just say 'have fun torturing me?'

"It's nice to meet you, Namikaze Naruko." I grin. This girl will be VERY fun to break.


	9. Interrogation

**Poll results:**

**Gaara 11  
Matatabi 6  
Shikamaru 5  
Sasuke 4  
Other 2  
Itachi 2  
Kakashi 1  
Haku 1**

**Total 32**

**A guest guessed that he's an OC. Let me tell you this, I may be evil, but I'm not THAT evil. In other words, it didn't occur to me to troll everyone reading this into guessing and then it turning out to be an OC. I just wanted to tell y'all this because it would be impossible for any of you to predict what my OC would be like and I'm one of those idiotic evil geniuses who is so proud of their plan they reveal it to the good guys, who then thwart said plan.**

**Sasuke's POV**

"I hope you've learned your lesson now, Sasuke." Itachi sighed as he untied me. Naruko was definitely going to pay. Uchihas do _not_ lose or dangle over a hundred feet from the ground.

"And this so called lesson would be?" Itachi shook his head and looked at me sternly.

"You do not piss of kunoichi. Ever. If you do, nobody tries to calm her down for fear of also incurring her wrath." _That_ was my brother's interpretation of this? Naruko was the dead last! A dobe. Something Naruko was NOT a competent kunoichi. But then, were any kunoichi truly competent? When I voiced my thoughts about this to Itachi, he paled.

"If you value your life, do not repeat that when any kunoichi are around. Unless you wish to piss them off, although one could say that is your ultimate goal, as immediately after you experience the results of angering a kunoichi, you seek to do it again." Point taken, but Naruko was too stupid and useless to be any real danger.

"Naruko's a pathetic excuse for a kunoichi. Angering a weakling like her shouldn't do any harm." Itachi twitches.

"Firstly, you JUST experienced her wrath so you really shouldn't be saying this. Secondly, Naruko is not weak, as you've been shown. Repeatedly. And lastly, let's assume you're right and Naruko is the weakest kunoichi in existence." _Finally_ Itachi comes around to my way of thinking. "If Naruko is the weakest, then what happens if you insult any of the other, much stronger kunoichi?" Hn. I suppose I should just keep my mouth shut from now on.

Itachi is interrupted when Mizuki, one of the Academy teachers, sprints through the clearing. He rushes right past us onward away from Konoha. He has a giant scroll on his back. Iruka rushes forwards, clearly out of breath.

"Mizuki... *wheeze* Stole... *wheeze* Scroll of Sealing!" Itachi nods and rushes off after him. I hesitate for a moment. If I went after Mizuki, then Naruko's name would be cleared and she would stop being tortured. And that would be a shame. On the other hand, Mizuki had committed TREASON. He was a traitor, and if given the choice between punishing a comrade that I hate or a traitor, I'd choose the traitor every time. I turned to Sakura. She might be somewhat useful.

"Let's go catch that traitor."

* * *

**Ibiki's POV**

I've really lost my touch. No matter what I tried with this girl, she kept insisting that she hadn't stolen the scroll and more importantly, was not reduced to a gibbering wreck.

Physical torture was useless to her. Most people shuddered at the very idea of pain and would tell me what I wanted to know quickly in order to avoid it. Personally, I had a low view of these people and hurt them anyways for their cowardice. She was different. What would have reduced a hardened ninja to screaming had no visible effect on her. On top of that, any wounds inflicted healed almost instantaneously. It would be _sooo_ much easier if I could simply break her spirit, or simply trick her into divulging the information, but she was a tough nut to crack. Her will was unbreakable and she kept insisting that she hadn't stolen the scroll. I was briefed about the evidence against her, and it was pretty damning.

This was so frustrating! I was on the verge of just calling in a favor with Inoichi and letting_ him_ deal with her. He'd never let me hear the end of it, but it would probably be worth it to see that smug look on her face disappear.

"Now, now Ibiki-san, you finally get to interrogate someone who's challenging, to say the least, and you're frustrated? I heard that you are one of the best interrogators in the five great shinobi nations and yet you can't get the information you want out of a brat like me? Not quite living up to your reputation. Maybe you've just gone _soft_." Said _brat_ is unbreakable. On top of that, she's _taunting_ me in the same manner that I usually use to interrogate prisoners. Is she playing with me? I can generally tell which battles I can win and which ones I will undoubtedly lose. This is going to be a crushing defeat for me if I continue. Time to call in that favor with Inoichi.

"Aww... You don't want to play with me anymore?" So this _was_ all a game to her. Dammit.

* * *

**Sasuke's POV**

"Give it up, Mizuki. You're cornered." Mizuki only grinned.

"It's all worth it, anyways. Even if I get caught, your teammate will have been tortured for almost an hour now. My sole regret is that I couldn't watch as that witch suffered." Same here. But what grudge did Mizuki have against Naruko?

"What do you have against Naruko?" My curiosity was now piqued. Mizuki smiled nastily at us.

"Well it all comes down to a well-known fact about your teammate, but most likely neither of you two genin know it and both of you are the ones in the most danger." Itachi and Iruka paled noticeably. Finally Iruka spoke up.

"This isn't your story to tell, Mizuki! Let Naruko tell them when she's ready." Sakura glared at Iruka, obviously pissed that everyone seemed to know something that she didn't.

"How about we let the brats decide. They're the ones who need to know the most, after all." I looked over at Sakura. She nodded.

"We want to know the truth about Namikaze Naruko."


	10. Answer

**I just had a giant burst of inspiration, and got this chapter as a result. I'll post one more chapter after this, and move on to the wave arc.**

**Poll results:**

**Gaara 11  
Matatabi 7  
Sasuke 6  
Shikamaru 5  
Other 2  
Itachi 2  
Kakashi 1  
Haku 1**

**Total 35**

* * *

**Inoichi's POV**

When Ibiki called me in for help with an interrogation, I was surprised, to say the least. Ibiki never has trouble with an interrogation. Ever. Ibiki handed me the case file.

"Namikaze Naruko. Stole the Scroll of Sealing and there is an extraordinary amount of evidence against her. We need to learn where she hid the scroll. However, she keeps insisting that she had nothing to do with the theft. There is a 72 hour window between when the scroll was last seen and when it was reported missing. You need to search her memories and find where she hid the scroll." Namikaze Naruko. If I remember correctly, she was in my daughter's Academy class. She should be a fresh genin by now. A fresh genin stole the scroll of sealing and on top of that, managed to give _Ibiki_ a hard time in the interrogation room. I should definitely be careful here.

I walk into the interrogation room to find the girl tied to a chair. When she sees me she beams up at me. That was odd. People who are being interrogated generally don't smile happily like that.

"Hello Mister! Are you here to play with me too? Ibiki-chan was fun, but you seem fun too! You look like you're a Yamanaka! Are you related to Ino-chan?" Okay, now I can see why Ibiki asked for help. The number one thing that made an interrogation successful was control. There was absolutely no control here. Well, might as well get this over with.

"Mind Invasion Technique." I was instantly transported to Naruko's mindscape. It was rather strange for a mindscape. Mindscapes often reflect a place that their owner's feel safe. For example, almost every single Nara seems to have a mindscape that involves a nice place to watch the clouds. I was in the middle of what appeared to be one of Konoha's sewers, standing ankle deep in water. This was Naruko's safe place?

Naruko stands several yards in front of me. She smiles mischievously at me and runs around the nearest corner. I run to catch up to her. She won't evade me for long. I round the bend only to see the tips of her pigtails as she turns another corner. I follow her around the corner and a wave of demonic chakra hits me. Naruko sits leisurely, leaning on a giant set of iron bars. Behind her the Kyuubi looms menacingly. Naruko looked unfazed by the fact that a giant demon was lurking behind her.

"So you are a Yamanaka, then. Did you know that some might consider it rude if someone breaks into their head? No matter! We can play mind games!" The Kyuubi rolls its eyes.

**"You do realize that while the intruder is under the impression that you want to toy with his head, you want to play inside the mindscape and just screw around in general?" **

"No, why would he think that? This is obviously a good place to play games." She directs her next question to me.

"So, do you want to play mind games?" I sensed an opportunity here.

"I'll play with you on one condition. I want to see some of your memories." Naruko pales.

"Uhh you _really _don't want to see some of them. Which ones do you want to see?" This girl was definitely hiding something. But what?

"The ones I want to see are of the last three days and how you got to know Kyuubi." Naruko lets out a sigh of relief.

"I can show you those, no problem." The mindscape dissolves into Naruko's memories.

_A smaller version of Naruko is crying. She looks to be about Academy age. Nobody tries to console her. Everyone simply ignores her. She sniffles and goes to cry where nobody can find her and she can pretend that everyone wants to comfort her, but simply can't find her. Naruko walks round to the back of the Academy where a scene unveils before her._

_A pink haired girl is being bullied by some other kids. She is crying. Naruko wonders glumly if it's a fact of life that people bully others for their own ends. Naruko turns to leave when a commotion ensues. Ino firmly tells them to stop and leave her alone. She then consoles Sakura. Naruko watches confusedly._

_Nothing like this ever happened to her! For her, there was no hero to step in and save the day. Okay, so sometimes Dog and Weasel of ANBU helped her out during mob attacks, but they were only doing their jobs by saving a civilian whose life was endangered. She tried to reward them with ramen, but they never took it or accepted her thanks. Naruko admired their sense of unwavering duty, getting nothing in return for their troubles._

_Naruko retreated deep within herself to find her answer._

_She was transported to... the Konoha Sewer System? Naruko liked the KSS. It was a good hiding place for when she was in trouble for something or another. Nobody ever bothered to explain to her what exactly she was in trouble for, but she was always punished. The KSS would probably make a good training place too, provided she didn't make too much noise._

_Naruko saw a red glow coming from right around the corner. Curious, she decided to investigate the source. A large set of bars blocked her way from reaching the light. The red glow seemed to be coming from a giant red fox._

_"Hi Fox-chan. Why are you in here? I've never seen you before." The fox growls threateningly at her._

**_"Don't call me Fox-chan! It's demeaning."_**_ Naruko looks at him in understanding._

_"You're right. I wouldn't like it if someone called me 'human' just because of my species. What's your name?" Kyuubi looks down threateningly at Naruko._

**_"The name's Rikudo Kurama."_**

The memory faded away and I was shown the past three days. Naruko was innocent, after all. Her memories were fairly interesting. She mastered an A-Ranked jutsu (that was forbidden), talked sense into Minato (a feat that was finally accomplished after twelve years of fruitless begging from the Yondaime's family and friends), stole the bell from a former ANBU (right under his nose, no less), gained her jinchuuriki ability (which seems extremely handy to me), and flew, all in the span of three days. Pretty impressive, if you ask me.

She seemed extremely capable and confident. What was the answer she found that allowed her to change from gloomy and depressed to smiling and cheerful? I had to know.

"What was the answer you found?" Naruko frowns in confusion, then realization dawned on her as she realized I was talking about the day she met Kurama.

"I realized that while the world is dark, heroes do exist. For others, a hero is a beacon of light that stops darkness. The reason that I had no hero was because _I _am my hero. My world may be pitch dark, but one day I will save myself by turning my world to light. That's why I want to be Hokage so much. If I am Hokage, then I will have completely changed my entire world to light and maybe have saved a few others, as well. Does this make sense to you?"

"Yes, it does. I'm actually impressed by the answer you came up with. Other jinchuuriki have tried to come up with their own answers, but they aren't as bright as yours. I've actually heard rumors of a jinchuuriki about your age from Suna who decided that the way to prove his existence is by eliminating the existences of others. I'm sorry, but I'm really busy today and can't play mind games with you. I promise to play them with you another day, just not today." I left the mindscape.

"How long was I in her mind, Ibiki?" You could never really tell with mindscapes how fast time went by.

"About thirty seconds." I quickly briefed Ibiki on my experience in her mindscape, feeling slightly miffed because I missed out on the mind games.

"That's good. But I'd really like to put her in ANBU as soon as possible, just to see what will happen." I nodded in agreement.

"What do you say to lobbying the Hokage to put her in ANBU as soon as she passes the chunin exams." I am also interested to see how quickly she will become a captain.

"I'm going to be a proctor in the exams, you know. I have a feeling that she'll undermine my typical exam. I'll do something _interesting_ this time around with my test." Ibiki grinned evilly. And the man wondered why he was never asked to be a Jounin-sensei!

* * *

**Sasuke's POV**

"You want the truth about Namikaze Naruko? I'll give you the short version. Her mother, Uzumaki Kushina had taken a gamble by having the demon fox sealed inside of her. Everything seemed fine. She had it under control. That is, until Naruko was born. She died in childbirth, but the demon didn't die. It had taken on the form of Namikaze Naruko! The Yondaime sank into a deep depression after she died. The other villages took this as a sign of weakness and tried to move in on Konoha. Thankfully, the Sandaime stood in for the Yondaime and created a treaty that prevented the war on October 21st. That's how the Treaty Day Festival was created. But my point is that that girl is a demon that was almost the end of us all, and will be our undoing if something isn't done about it!"

This is irrational! The other nations only saw those events as an excuse to make war, while irrational ninja and uninformed civilians not wanting to stir up a fuss about the villages who were preparing to go to war with us used Naruko as a scapegoat. I, at least, hated her for a rational reason. Did I? Or was I just upset that the dead last outdid the rookie of the year several times. Did the stupid Academy standings matter that much to me? I must be a bit too proud for my own good. Arrogance had definitely clouded my judgment and may continue to do so in the future. I needed to amend the mistake I made and watch myself carefully in the future. And I knew exactly how to start.

"You're wrong, Mizuki. Naruko is not a demon. Sakura, does Naruko seem very demonic to you?" Mizuki looked at me in surprise and rage.

"No, she really doesn't. I think she's a bit too happy and carefree to really be a fox demon. She doesn't look even remotely demonic to me." Sakura answered with conviction.

"What do you expect? Fox ears? Whisker marks on her face? She's not human and wants to destroy us all! Or are you blind?" Mizuki spat. Sakura immediately responded.

"I'm not blind, but you are! Naruko is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and is much more human than you are! Cha!" Sakura looked a little embarrassed after what she just said, as though she didn't realize she said that out loud.

"Surrender, Mizuki. Or else you'll pay the price for insulting our comrade." I must have looked serious, because Mizuki happily surrendered. We retrieved the scroll and returned to Konoha. During the trip, Itachi gave Sakura and I a compliment that meant everything to me. He didn't elaborate, and I just hned in response, but that one simple sentence was all I needed.

"I'm proud of you two."


	11. Friends

**100 Follows! Yay!**

**Gaara 11  
Sasuke 7  
Matatabi 7  
Shikamaru 5  
Itachi 3  
Other 2  
Kakashi 1  
Haku 1  
Shisui 1**

**11 votes until the next hint...**

* * *

**Naruko's POV**

"Namikaze Naruko, you have been found innocent of the crime of stealing the scroll of sealing and are free to go. For now, at least." Ibiki smirked what might have appeared to be evilly but with my new 'sixth sense,' I could tell that Ibiki's evil looking smirk was probably as close as he could come to a broad grin.

"Well I for one certainly hope that next time, I can be an interrogator instead of an interrogate." I smirk back at Ibiki.

"Maybe. But you'd have to make ANBU for that to happen." Ibiki surprised me by actually conceding the point to me. I thought for a second about what he meant. If I wanted to interrogate people, I'd have to join ANBU. Did Ibiki want me to make ANBU? I'd always admired ANBU somewhat. Well, maybe I just admired their masks. Or maybe what I liked so much about ANBU was that they helped me out on Treaty Day to escape the mob of drunken villagers. The strength that Dog and Weasel had is what made me want to become a ninja.

So I DID want to join ANBU one day. I hadn't really realized that I wanted to until now. I knew that I wanted to become Hokage one day, but I hadn't really given much thought to anything else. I supposed that I could be ANBU until I became Hokage. Or I could somehow be both at the same time. That'd be _interesting_. And by _interesting_ I mean complicated.

"So what would it take for me to be able to join ANBU?" I posed the question casually so as not to give away how deep my interest really was. As soon as I asked the question, Ibiki and the Yamanaka whose name I STILL didn't know were both really excited. I guess they wanted me in ANBU and were indirectly trying to get me to ask about it.

"For starters, you have to be at least chunin level, if not jounin. It is highly recommended that someone who is trying to join ANBU has good reconnaissance skills, meaning that they are stealthy and have a decent information gathering jutsu. They should also have fairly large chakra reserves so they don't run out of chakra in the middle of a mission. They need speed, stamina, and power. They should also be skilled at hiding and being unobtrusive. They need to know their own strength and not accidentally put too much power into something and making a mess. They need intelligence. And above all, they need to learn to make logical decisions and not let their emotions cloud their judgment. Lastly, you need several recommendations by some other ANBU." Wow, that was detailed. They must REALLY want me in ANBU. I probably won't have much problem with the recommendation bit.

I went over the qualities he mentioned and tried to see how many of them I had.

I guess I had good reconnaissance skills. Kurama said that shadow clones could send memories to their owner. I only thought it would be useful in training, but now I see that the potential with these are practically limitless. As for stealth, I was fairly stealthy. Especially considering the fact that I usually wore a very conspicuous bright red jumpsuit. _I could have gotten the ultimate stealth training, but _somebody_ *cough Kura-chan cough* wouldn't let me get my very awesome jumpsuit in orange._** Brat, I was doing you a favor. That thing was UGLY. The red one is too, but the orange one was worse. If I had it my way, you'd wear something sensible but I recognize the fact that we don't really have all that many options. **_Orange is awesome. It is not in any way, shape, or form ugly._ **...**

I had large chakra reserves plus lots of speed and stamina. I'd need to work on power. I was strong, yes, but due to a bad diet of mainly ramen I wasn't as strong as I could be. Ramen was cheap, and I was poor, with no real way to make money other than begging (and having rotten food thrown at me) and thieving (there's a reason I got the bell so easily and without being noticed), and on top of that I had to take care of my dad. I couldn't use any of his or my mom's money because the bank wouldn't let me take out any of my dad's money and my mom's inheritance went to my dad. But since my dad is no longer moping that Mom died, he can take his money and use it to buy decent food (not that ramen isn't awesome) and get stronger.

I am very good at finding hiding places so unusual, nobody thinks to look there. Although sometimes, the well known hiding places that everyone knows about but nobody ever bothers to hide there because it's an obvious hiding spot and since nobody hides there anymore, nobody bothers looking there are the best spots. I'm not exactly unobtrusive, but if I henge only a few features I'm unrecognizable.

I know my own strength and can use the bare minimum needed to get the job done efficiently. I think I'm intelligent, but I'm biased about that _just a little_ (read: a lot). I know when emotions are needed and when they are useless. I've already learned to put aside my useless emotions, so no problem there.

The biggest problem is that I'm not a chunin yet. The soonest chunin exams are in six months. I guess that's six months to get stronger, then. I'll up my resistance seals more frequently to increase my strength and will need to train without them periodically so I can learn my own strength. These next few months are going to be busy, that's for sure.

"What? You recovered the scroll and the thief?" Ibiki's sharp question startled me out of my training plans. The thief had been found? I looked up to see Itachi, Iruka, Sasuke, and Sakura standing at the door with a scroll and a tied up Mizuki. I had neutral feelings for him, but I knew he hated me. I didn't think he was the type to steal, though.

Iruka handed off the thief to the Yamanaka and we left to report to the Hokage what had happened. I hoped the old man found the situation as amusing as I did. I stop short of the door hearing a heated argument take place.

"I am telling you that my daughter did NOT steal the god damn scroll!" The first voice sounded very angry. Who wouldn't be if their daughter was accused of a crime they didn't commit?

"She did too! She's being interrogated right now!" The second voice was very scared of the wrath of the first voice. Wait... The daughter was accused of stealing a scroll and was sent to be interrogated. So that would mean MY DAD IS IN THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE?

"WHAT?" A (very) large burst of KI swept the atmosphere and I think his enraged shout could be heard all across Konoha. Sasuke, Sakura and Iruka were blown backwards in shock. Ibiki, Itachi, and I were unaffected.

"Hi Dad." The killing aura around my father vanished abruptly as he noticed our presence. I'm pretty sure this scared Sasuke, Sakura, and Iruka more than it's monstrous presence.

"Oh yes, come in all of you. Close the door behind you. I don't want this guy here escaping." The idiot that was unfortunate enough to anger a kage froze as his escape attempt was unsuccessful.

We reported everything that happened and Dad looked like he wanted to strangle Ibiki for torturing me, but we assured him that Ibiki didn't really hurt me and I had fun throughout the entire process. I didn't appear to have any wounds, so he calmed down a bit. I managed to also save the poor idiot by reminding Dad that nothing good came from maiming the messenger of bad news. Maybe my plan worked a little TOO well and I now have a father who's a bit over protective of his only daughter. He's probably making up for lost time.

Eventually we were dismissed. Sakura and Sasuke let out a visible sigh of relief as soon as the door was shut behind them.

"Your dad is really scary, Naruko." Sakura looked shaken. I decided to react in the way that would most definitely have the most amusing outcome. I am a bit of a prankster, after all.

"Really? I didn't notice." I did my best to look clueless. Sakura and Sasuke looked even more shaken.

"Umm Naruko. Sakura and I have something to tell you." Sasuke and Sakura looked serious and somewhat nervous. I decided to lighten the mood a little.

"What? Are you and Sakura dating?" Sasuke twitched and Sakura squealed at the notion.

"We're sorry for the way we treated you. Will you forgive us?" I sensed from the both of them genuine remorse for the way they acted. I decided to play with them a little more. (Ibiki's mind games are REALLY rubbing off on me.)

"I will forgive you on one condition..." Sasuke and Sakura nodded, hanging on to my every word. **You shouldn't have been exposed to that man. Before long, you'll be as sadistic as he is.**_ Who's to say that I'm not as sadistic as he is already. Don't worry, Kura-chan. I promise to never play mind games with you. _**I'll hold you to that.**

"Can we be friends?" They both assured me that yes, they wanted to be my friends. I grinned widely at them.

I had always hoped that once I was a genin, I could call my teammates 'friends.' Things had been a little rocky between us at the start, but that's how I knew that I was able to trust both of them with guarding my back in a fight. I'm just glad that I managed to make my first (human) friends.


	12. C-Rank

**Poll Results**

******Gaara 11  
Sasuke 8  
Matatabi 7  
Shikamaru 5  
Itachi 3  
Other 2  
********Haku 2  
Kakashi 1  
Shisui 1  
Kiba 1  
Male!Hinata 1**

******Total 42**

******8 more votes until I give you my next hint!**

* * *

_**One Month Later...**_

**Naruko's POV**

"No." Sasuke and Sakura did a double take at my blatant refusal.

"I refuse to do another one of these pointless D-Rank missions. These are summer jobs for civilian kids needing extra money, not missions. And do not bother explaining the way missions are assigned because I already know that. What I want to know is why these even count as missions in the first place." A deadly aura was beginning to surround me. Sasuke looked impassive, but was silently agreeing with me. Sakura appeared irritated with me, but she was also internally agreeing with me. I thought it interesting that she had an inner personality that was the exact opposite of her outer. It wasn't hypocrisy, more a mental disagreement with what was going on around her. At some point, both the outer and inner are going to merge, resulting in a very strong-willed kunoichi.

"Once you are a ninja, you are an adult and are no longer coddled. Adults need to learn to be self sufficient and know how to live on their own. If a ninja does not know how to do any of these things, they become a slob. Sloppy ninjas can spell out disaster in the field. D-Ranked missions are a safeguard to prevent that from happening to the entire village and weakening it. They are also used on genins to increase teamwork skills." At least it's a sound argument.

"Missions that genin take are D-Ranks AND C-Ranks. All of the new genin teams have taken at least one C-Rank except one. Ours. Do you honestly expect me to believe that there is no favoritism here by the Hokage, who can't allow his _precious_ daughter to get into any danger?" I had him backed into a corner now. His only escape was to give us a mission higher than a D-Rank.

**I should do the shinobi world a favor and rip out your tongue. If I don't, you'll put the entire shinobi world onto it's knees with your empty words.** _My words are NOT empty! I won't let them be empty, either. I'll make it my shinobi way to live up to my word, so my words can be full, not_ _empty._** Good. I'll be here to remind you of that.**

"Actually, there's a C-Rank client right now, ready to be escorted to the Land of the Waves so that he can finish building his bridge. Come on in, Tazuna!" A drunk staggered into the room.

"Hey, I asked for _ninja _protection, not these brats. That small girl with the funny hair looks like she couldn't last the journey, let alone protect me." I snickered at the jibe he made at Sakura for a moment. Then I realized that Sakura was _taller_ than me.

I ran up to Tazuna and held a kunai at his throat.

"Part of a ninja's job is to be underestimated. But I don't see what it matters since the most dangerous thing you'll ever come across, everyone in Konoha excluded, is a couple of bandits." That scared him sufficiently. He got a little more nervous when I mentioned the last part, but I had no idea why. What was I, a mind reader? No, sorry, I'm just a lowly mood reader.

"You shouldn't have used a wind jutsu to increase your speed. We are indoors, after all," Itachi scolded. I frowned.

"I didn't use a wind jutsu. I just ran." Dad paled. He tossed one of his specialty kunai to Itachi.

"Here. I'll train with Naruko after the mission, but keep this on you, just in case. Naruko, whatever you do, do not work on speed training while you're on this mission. Understand?" No speed training. Sounds simple enough. I nodded. But why did Dad sound so scared? I'll ask him after the mission.

* * *

I stood outside the village gates, waiting for my teammates. I had made in advance a mission scroll that contained everything I needed for a mission that lasted a few weeks, so all I really needed was to grab it, seal it into a miniature inch long scroll, and put it in my pocket. Sakura arrived soon after I did, toting a green backpack. She looked around, noticed that nobody else had arrived, and proceeded to take out a small sketchpad and pencil. She then began a detailed sketch of the village gates.

The Uchiha brothers arrived with Tazuna. Sakura and I grinned.

"Finally you're ready. I thought I was going to wait all day for you slowpokes." I joked with them. After a few weeks, they had finally realized that I was joking with them when I said this kind of stuff.

"Well, it could be worse. You could have Hatake Kakashi as your sensei." Hatake Kakashi. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it...

"Who's Hatake Kakashi?" Sakura looked like she didn't quite get the joke.

"A jounin who's always at least an hour late for everything."

"Then how's he a jounin if he's always late?" Sasuke was bursting with curiosity.

"Actually he's only late for things he deems unimportant. However, if one of his comrades is in danger, he is the most reliably on time ninjas you'll ever meet. He's also one of Konoha's strongest jounin." Now I remembered who Hatake Kakashi was. He was one of Dad's students. He tried to help out when I was little. Maybe he stopped due to the fact that I 'accidentally' destroyed his favorite book because after reading a page of it, a young impressionable child was scarred for life. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have if I had known that he would leave. Or maybe it was due to something else entirely.

"Didn't you forget to pack?" Itachi asked.

"Nope. I have everything I need right here with me. Let's go!" I grinned and started walking to the Land of the Waves.

"You do realize that the Land of the Waves is in the _other_ direction." I face palmed and started towards the Land of the Waves, for real this time.


	13. Idiotic Ninja

**My ever trusty Beta Reader, TheBlackSeaReaper is going to be busy for the rest of the week (she will be missed). But never fear, I came up with a brilliant plan! You see, my birthday is next week, so I decided to celebrate by giving you a gift of sorts. I won't update until Monday, but on Monday I will update with a giant monster of a chapter. I will be adding on to it all week, so you'll get a weeks worth of Light! Yaayyyyyy!**

**On a side note, OrangeLamb brought up a very good point in a review. My poll _has_ been up for a while, and to be honest I'm kinda getting bored of it. It ceases to amuse me anymore. I will leave it up for one more week, and when monster chapter goes up, I will close my poll. I'm feeling a bit lazy and don't really feel like putting the poll results up. If you really want to see the results, go on my profile and look.**

**This chapter is shorter than I'd like it to be, but the next chapter will balance it out.**

* * *

**Itachi's POV**

Team Seven walked down the road with Tazuna, laughing and joking along the way. I was glad to see Sasuke and Naruko just acting somewhat like normal kids. Well, Sasuke was a bit reserved, like always, and one could never be quite sure if Naruko's cheerfulness was genuine or fake. If you ask me, it was either encouraging to the goodness of humanity or creepy that after all the girl had been through, she could still smile as brightly as she did. I still wasn't quite sure which it was. But Naruko wasn't all that creepy, so I'd probably go for the first option. Maybe there is still some hope left for humanity.

Naruko was currently wondering if there were ninja in other countries. It was a good question, so I decided to speak up.

"Actually, there are ninja villages in most countries. It's unlikely that we'll encounter any because this is just a simple C-Rank." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them because as I immediately noticed a puddle. There was a drought going on. Of course, Itachi. Of course you had to jinx yourself.

Naruko switched topics and started complaining about how dry droughts were. Sasuke and Sakura simply told her that droughts were _supposed _to be dry. Naruko started pouting.

"It'd be a lot funnier if they were wet." She muttered under her breath. Then she brightened up.

"A puddle! See, it _can_ be wet in the middle of a drought!" Naruko bounded up to it and jumped into the puddle. I mentally applauded her for her acting skills. She managed to fool the idiot ninjas who tried to take us for fools but were themselves fools for thinking us fools. I am going to do the world a favor and never think that thought again.

The idiotic ninja duo (so there were not just one but _two_ idiotic ninja out there) popped out of the puddle and charged... towards Tazuna. Why would they target an old civilian who builds bridges? I think back to everything the old man said or did and realized that he knew that ninja were after him and he probably knew why. I decided not to waste time testing team seven's abilities in combat and slit the throats of those idiots. (Less idiots alive make the world a better, much smarter place.)

Sasuke looked shocked by what I just did. I realized that while he saw me as a strong ninja, it was never really clear to him that as part of my ninja duties, I had to kill others. To him, I just killed two people without remorse of any kind. Naruko noticed his shocked look.

"Calm down, you idiot! It's not as though your brother killed your entire clan!" That seemed to shake him out of his train of thought.

"Hn." Sasuke responded, looking the epitome of calmness.

"Those were Kiri chunin which are well known for attacking without regard for their physical state. As long as they are alive, they are dangerous." I gave my students a quick briefing about the danger of our opponents.

"Those were the Demon Brothers, worth about 45,000 ryo dead and 30,000 alive. Assuming Itachi-sensei was a bounty hunter, he would immediately have chopped off their heads and sealed them inside a sealing scroll to preserve the head and turn it in for money when convenient." Naruko recited coldly. I flipped through my bingo book to cross reference this. She was spot on.

"Tell me, Naruko. Did you memorize the _entire_ Bingo Book?" Naruko shrugged.

"I was bored." Naruko stated matter-of-factly, as if that one statement was enough.

"What else have you accomplished when you were bored?" I was curious now.

"Fuuinjutsu. I make all of my own seals, including the resistance seals Sasuke and Sakura are wearing." When Sasuke and Sakura learned that Naruko trained using resistance seals, they had asked for some to train with. Naruko obliged, giving them the seal the next day.

"You mean you made them from scratch?" Sakura was looking at Naruko in awe while Sasuke seemed to have a hint of jealousy.

"I'm not as good at sealing as you'd think. Resistance seals are seals with a moderate difficulty and aren't simple like sealing scrolls or explosive tags. But there are things I'm not good at too, like katon and genjutsu." Naruko seemed modest although the most basic seals were very difficult to make properly. If Naruko didn't know how to improve herself in her specialties, then I was doomed because while I could teach Sasuke and Sakura the jutsu I specialized in, Naruko was incompatible with my specialties. The only things besides basic jutsu I could teach her was a little Suiton.

"What I find interesting is that two Chunins attacked an old man, when the greatest threat he claimed to have against him was a few bandits. Perhaps you could enlighten us, Tazuna-san?" I needed to know this information before proceeding. Tazuna gulped.

"Yes, I suppose I should tell you the truth..."

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**Review! I truthfully love all the reviews I've gotten, but the ones I really love are the long, detailed ones that tell me some of my faults so I can improve my writing, thus improving the story.**


	14. Moment

**I enjoyed writing this chapter, but it isn't as long as I'd have hoped. But on the bright side, it's my longest chapter so far.**

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**Naruko's POV**

"What I find interesting is that two Chunins attacked an old man, when the greatest threat he claimed to have against him was a few bandits. Perhaps you could enlighten us, Tazuna-san?" Tazuna gulped. He looked scared, but guilt overrode his fear.

"Yes, I suppose I should tell you the truth..." Itachi motioned for him to go on.

"It's about this mission. You're right, this job is most likely outside your line of duties. It turns out that a super dangerous man is after my life."

"Who?" Itachi questioned. Depending on the danger level of the man, the mission might very well be canceled, and that would be no fun.

**I bet you're thinking right now that it would be no fun if the bothersome Uchiha canceled the mission. **_How'd you know?_ **It doesn't take kyuubi powers to guess what you're thinking.** _Am I really that predictable?_ **To me, yes. To anyone else, you're the most unpredictable ninja out there.** _Good. I thought I'd gotten_ predictible.** The reason you're so predictable to me is because I know you better than anyone else does. On top of that, you think more like a fox than a human. **_So if I'm battling a fox I'm doomed._ **Yes. Foxes are awesome. It's a fact of life.**_ And the fact that you yourself are a fox has absolutely nothing to do with it. _**Of course not.**

I focused back in on the relevant conversation. It's amazing how I can have an entire conversation with Kurama while still following the conversation around me. I think it has to do with the conversation being mental.

"You've probably at least heard his name before." Itachi sent Tazuna a look stated, 'I'm a high ranking jonin. I've heard of everyone who's even remotely dangerous. Just get on with it!' It's either something along those lines or 'Hn.' For some reason, I think Uchihas are really easy to read. It helps that I can sense emotions.

"The wealthy shipping magnate... A man named Gato." The name sounded vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place it.

"Gato from Gato Company?" Ah, so that's where I heard it.

"Yes. Officially he owns a large shipping company, but secretly he sells drugs and other illegal items, using ninja and gang members to take over businesses and countries. He's a very nasty man. It was about a year ago when he set his sights on the Land of the Waves. Through money and violence, he quickly took control of the country's shipping industry. Gato now has a monopoly on all business traffic in the country. The only thing he has to fear now is the completion of the bridge." So that was the story. Unless he was keeping something from us. Which he wasn't. It was highly unlikely if he was.

"I see... Since you're building the bridge, you're in the way." Sakura looked thoughtful as she spoke.

"So those ninja were hired by Gato?" Sasuke confirmed the obvious to check if Tazuna was holding anything else back from us. It was my turn to say something now.

I was about to say something smart and intelligent when I had a much better idea. And by better, I mean funner. I cocked my head to the side and feigned confusion.

"I don't get it." I internally smirked at my teammates reactions. Sakura had facepalmed and Sasuke's left eye was twitching. If looks could kill, he'd have burned me alive a _long_ time ago. But then, he's an Uchiha who will one day have the sharingan. I just hope that the sharingan doesn't have some hidden ability that can produce fire. I'd be toast if there was. Literally.

Then Sakura did something that surprised me. She walked up to me, bonked me on the head and began to scold me.

"Naruko you baka! You know you're not stupid so don't act like it! I know for a fact that you understand what's going on better than the rest of us so act like it!" She has me figured out that much already? Troublesome.

"Um Sakura-chan? You do realize that you called me a baka then said that I wasn't an idiot. Am I a baka but not an idiot?" She bonked me on the head again.

"Sorry. It's a bad habit of mine from the Academy to act like a complete and utter fool. I should stop acting like an idiot in front of you." I decided to be serious this time. Sakura looked curious now, but I sent a look saying I was done explaining.

"You said _should_. You didn't say _will_, so you will most likely continue acting the way you do just to annoy us." Sasuke stated this plainly and looked slightly irritated. Did this mean I was predictable? So Kurama was wrong! **No I'm not wrong. They've been around you for most of the month and put up with your sense of humor the entire time. That is not the same thing as being predictable. And since you're wondering, I cannot read minds. I've had to sit through your mindless chitchat for years. I know you better than you know yourself. If you were predictable, everyone could predict your every move like I do.** Seriously?

"Since Sakura seems to think that you have an absolute understanding of the situation, why don't you tell everyone why Tazuna lied about the mission difficulty and gotten a more competant ninja team to protect him?" Itachi asked the question in teacher mode. He probably knew the answer and wanted to test my understanding.

"I have a slight issue with the way you worded the question because you implied that we aren't competant but I'll answer the question anyways. From the sounds of things, Gato is greedy and milks the country for all it's worth. To make matters worse, the Land of the Waves is a bunch of islands that is most likely dependent on the shipping industry for basic food and supplies. That particular combination would result in everyone being dirt poor. I bet Tazuna's entire village put their money to afford this mission, but the highest rank they could afford was a C-Rank." Tazuna nodded.

"Yes, you're right. The Land of the Waves is super poor. Even the Feudal Lord is broke. Of course, nobody else has much money, either. Not enough to afford an expensive B-Ranked mission. Well, if you quit the mission now, I'll definitely be killed. But don't worry about it! If I die, my cute ten-year-old grandson will only cry for a few days! Oh yeah, and my daughter will live a sad life hating Konoha shinobi forever. But it won't be your fault. Not at all!" Oh, he's good. Itachi looked somewhat troubled.

"Well, we will protect you until you get to the Land of the Waves. We can't leave you to die in a foreign land. That would be quite rude."

* * *

The trip to the Land of the Waves was uneventful, not counting the fact that Tazuna roped us into completing the mission. I was secretly happy about this for two reasons. The first reason was that once Dad found out about what happened, it would be at least a month before he would let us attempt another one. This mission was at least a B-Ranked, and maybe if we proved ourself while on the mission, Dad would have no choice except to allow us to take more C-Ranks. My other reason was simply that I had never left Konoha before, much less gone to another country, and I was curious to see what it would be like.

As soon as we set foot on the land of the waves, I knew someone was following us. I threw a shuriken in a random direction to throw them into a false sense of security and after a while threw a second shuriken at our pursuer. The pursuer substituted with a white rabbit and I didn't hit him, unfortunately. On the bright side, Itachi was immediately put on guard when he saw a white rabbit in the springtime.

"Everyone, get down!" Itachi yelled urgently. We ducked just in time for a giant sword to sail right over our heads and embed itself into a tree. A man stood on the sword hilt. He certainly knows how to make an entrance.

I assess our opponent. Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of Kiri. He left Kiri after attempting to assassinate the Mizukage, and is now classified as a nukenin. Three genin against a hardened criminal? The outcome was obvious, so when Itachi told us to stand back and let him handle this, I stood back without complaint.

The battle that ensued was fairly impressive, and I couldn't even begin to describe the battle. Itachi and Zabuza were evenly matched, but Itachi slowly began to gain the upper hand. Just when he was about to land the finishing blow, senbons sprouted from Zabuza's neck and he fell backwards with a thud. A kiri hunter-nin popped up, took the body, and left to properly dispose of it. If I were Itachi, I would have insisted on slitting his throat for good measure because this was obviously a set up. What kind of hunter-nin uses a non-lethal weapon like SENBONS? But then I realized that Itachi was tired and tired people did NOT challenge a well-rested opponent of unknown strength to a battle. It was common sense.

Itachi _did_ look tired and it seemed as though he was having trouble staying awake. I advised Tazuna that he was safer with a fully awake jonin and in response, he led a half awake Itachi to his house, which was a five minute walk away. As soon as we got there, Itachi collapsed and Sasuke carried him off to bed.

* * *

Itachi finally woke up at noon the next day, and we shared our suspicions with Sasuke and Sakura about the hunter-nin being a fake. They were a little incredulous at first, but once we started to explain our theory they caught on quickly. Itachi judged that we had about a week to train before Zabuza came back.

Itachi took us out to the forest and told us we were going to improve our chakra control by climbing trees. We were slightly incredulous at first, but then Itachi explained that we wouldn't be using our hands. Instead, we would be channeling chakra to our feet and sticking to the tree. He gives us all kunai and tells us to mark our spots with them.

Sasuke runs up the tree runs up about halfway before getting blown off and lands lightly on his feet. Show off. I run to the tree and only manage to take a few steps before blasting off the tree. If I hadn't sent chakra off my body to catch my fall, I would have landed right on my butt. I look at the kunai mark I left on the tree. It was only a foot above the ground. Dang it. At least I remembered the amount of chakra I had going for that first foot. The second try was definitely going to be higher. Much higher.

"I don't see what the big deal is. This is easy!" Sasuke and I look up to see Sakura at a ridiculously high branch. I grin up at her.

"How's the weather up there? Actually, I'm so curious about it that I'll just come up there to find out!" I start walking up the tree to her level. Once I get up there, I pretend to fall, only to attach myself upsidedown to a tree branch. I grin at her.

"Baka! You had me worried for a moment!" She scowls at me.

"Ha! I am an idiot! You said so yourself!" My grin widens.

"Only an idiot like you would be _happy_ about being called stupid." Itachi seems to be annoyed by our antics.

"Is there even a point to this conversation? Sakura, Naruko, both of you have clearly mastered this exercise. Go eat lunch while Sasuke works on tree climbing." I jump down from the tree while Sakura walks down. We go sit in a nearby clearing that has a good view of Sasuke but is out of earshot to eat lunch. As I sit down, Sakura decides to ask me a question that had clearly been troubling her for some time.

"Why did you forgive us?" The question was released in a rush and I couldn't understand it or the context.

"What?" Sakura sighs.

"Sasuke and I treated you horribly, and yet you forgave us immediately after we said sorry and even wanted to be friends with us. Why?" It was a good question, so I decided to tell her my reasoning.

"I forgave you for two real reasons. Firstly, because you were genuinely sorry and nobody had ever taken the time to apologize to me before. And secondly, because I never had friends back in the Academy so one of my hopes for the future was that when I became a genin, my teammates would be friends with me. Do you have any other questions?" Sakura nodded.

"Do you like Sasuke?" Sakura is blushing slightly. I raise an eyebrow.

"As in, romantically?" Her blush reddens as she nods.

"Nope. You can have him, for all I care." Sakura looks relieved, as though a visible weight has lifted from her shoulders.

We spend the rest of the afternoon chatting about anything and everything. I tell her about my intense love for orange and how Kurama wouldn't let me buy my jumpsuit in orange because he deemed it hideous. I henge into the outfit and she told me, quite frankly, that Kurama was right. She then goes on to tell me that her parents own a clothing store and if I really want to wear orange, she can pick out outfits for me, since I obviously have no taste. Kurama was howling with laughter as she told me this. Sasuke falls off the tree again, and I supress a snicker. Sakura scolds me and walks off to Sasuke to give him a hint and soon after that, Sasuke comes to join us at the clearing. He digs into his lunch ravenously because it is already late afternoon. Sasuke seems slightly irked that Sakura didn't give him the hint earlier so that he could have eaten sooner. Sakura tells Sasuke that he could have at least asked for a hint, because how is she to know whenever he needs help? I snicker and tell Sasuke that he's too proud for her own good. He glares one of his Uchiha-glares and my snicker transforms into a full-blown , my laughter was contagious and Sakura miserably tries and fails to hide a snicker. She gives up and bursts into full-blown laughter. Sasuke hesitates a moment before joining in. In that warm moment of laughter and friendship, I decide that this is one of those moments that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

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**Chibi Naruko: Happy birthday, NewWings!**

**NewWings: Aww... You're so sweet. I've officially CLOSED the poll, but it got more than 50 votes, and I'm not sure whether or not to give everyone a hint or not.**

**Chibi Naruko: Is the hint something that seems specific, but becomes vague the more you think about it until the point that it is practically useless?**

**NewWings: Yep. How'd you know?**

**Chibi Naruko: Greatly devious minds think alike. So what's the hint?**

**NewWings: Gaara won the poll that I was using to see how predictible I am and the hint is that he died in cannon at some point. He might still be dead or have been brought back to life. I'm not telling!**

**Chibi Naruko: Okay, I have to admit, that's an awesome hint!**

**NewWings: It's because I'm awesome like that! But I was thinking about doing something for all of the readers.**

**Chibi Naruko: What? Is it devious?**

**NewWings: No, not really. As a birthday present to yours truly, please give me a good fic recommendation!**

**Chibi Naruko: Are you ****_that_**** bored? And how do you know that they'll give you one? NewWings: Yes. I am ****_that_**** bored. And they'll want to recommend me a good fic because I will let whoever recommends the best fic put in one suggestion for Light or my other story The Symphonia Princess! Same goes if anyone can send me a fic that can make me cry.**

**Chibi Naruko: The second one is highly unlikely, unless they're tears that are a result of you laughing to hard. How do you know if the fic will be any good?**

**NewWings: Because they're reading this, aren't they?**

**Chibi Naruko: *rolls eyes* You do realize that you just complimented yourself.**

**NewWings: Yep!**


	15. Cry

**I just realized that I told y'all to recommend me a good fic without bothering to metntion what I even like. It's not surprising, considering I'm vague by nature. But I like everything, except for a few things that I avoid on principle. I HATE self-inserts, Akatsuki KittenFics, and Anyone/Multi pairings. Other than that, I'm fine with anything. Fandom doesn't matter to me, but if you're doing something in a category other than Naruto, please mention something along those lines. BTW, my two favorite genres are Angst and Humor.**

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**Naruko's POV **

The next few days went by quickly, and Itachi seemed to want to train us to our limits. By the time we went back to Tazuna's house for the day, we were usually exhausted.

Tazuna's grandson, Inari, would have been difficult to put up with had I been fully awake. But I was tired, and that kid was getting on my nerves. It's not that he was the hyperactive kind of annoying. He was the pessimistic the-world-sucks-and-there's-no-point-trying-to-cha nge-it kind of annoying.

"What's his problem?" I asked Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami. She went on to explain the entire sob story about Inari's father which had Sakura in tears and Sasuke mildly upset. I waited patiently for her to finish.

"Is that it?" Inari looked shocked by the fact that I didn't even remotely feel sorry for him.

"What do you know? What do you know about pain? About suffering? About watching your father die? You're just a naive idiot who lives happily with a family that has plenty of money to spend on you. You don't know anything! You've probably never had a good reason to cry in your life!" That was the last straw.

"Do you believe that when a woman or child cries, someone will automatically come to help you? (1)" I realized that I was emitting a dark aura when Inari looked like he was terrified. I hastily reigned it back in.

"I'm going to train for a while. It would be a bad idea to disturb me. Interrupt me and fear for your life!" I laugh as though I had just made a funny joke and leave the building.

I stalk into the forest. I need some fresh air. I hear Inari run up to his room and slam the door. To cry, no doubt. Pathetic. Anyone who cries is pathetic and weak. I was weak once, but I'm not anymore. I refuse to be. I refuse to cry. No matter how much my heart may break, I will not cry.

I train in the woods, working on increasing my physical strength. The training is exhausting, but that was exactly what I had in mind. I just didn't intend to fall asleep in the middle of the woods.

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**Itachi's POV**

There was a shocked silence after Naruko and Inari left the room.

"Is _everyone_ in her family like that?" Sakura wondered.

"I think so. Everyone in her family seems to be extremely powerful and extremely volatile." Sasuke stated.

"Maybe, but at least Naruko's father has an excuse." Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"All of Konoha's strongest ninja are crazy. Since her father is the strongest ninja in the village, it makes perfect sense that he would also be crazy." I explained. For some reason, the stronger a ninja is, the crazier they are. All you need to do is take a look at Might Gai for proof. Further proof would be the Sannin. I heard that one's a mad scientist, one has both a gambling and alcohol problem, and the other is a pervert. Strong? Yes. Insane? Definitely. It's probably a result of too much blood on their hands. They most likely used their insanity as a coping mechanism. I'm glad I'm not crazy like they are. But I could be in denial and be crazy and just not know it yet. Nah.

"So you mean that since he's the strongest, he's also the craziest." I hadn't thought about it that way, but it _does_ make sense.

"I'm confused. I thought the Hokage was the strongest person in the village." Tazuna looked confused. I smirked knowingly at him. Then it dawned on him.

"You don't mean that... He looked sane! ...They don't look very alike... No, they have the same face shape..." Tazuna started muttering under his breath.

I excused myself from the table and went up after Inari. Who knows what effect Naruko's words had on the boy. I walked into his room to see him staring at a photograph of his father sadly. He must have sensed my presence because he started speaking.

"You know, I can't bring myself to cry after what she just told me. I want to cry, but I can't." Inari's eyes were dry. It looked like Naruko's words had a greater effect than I anticipated.

"Naruko's lived a hard life. Most of the villagers hate her, but I don't think I've ever seen her cry. I think she realized that nobody would comfort her, so she gave up on crying. She decided not to mope about her situation, but smile and try to change it." Inari nodded and smiled at me. His smile looked forced, so he dropped it.

Inari then tried smiling again. I knew his smile was fake, but it looked like he was really happy. It was also familiar, but I couldn't quite seem to place it.

With a pang, I realized that the smile was identical to the one Naruko usually wore.

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**(1) I randomly decided to put this foot note in here to tell y'all that Naruko just quoted Kyoko, from _Skip Beat!_ I had originally written a big long lecture for Naruko to give, but then I randomly thought of this and thought that it'd be a bit more interesting to just put that one simple sentence in there.**


	16. Precious

**Sorry that I've been unable to update for the last week. I have a whole littany of reasons, but I'm too lazy to type them out.**

**On a much happier note, Light has gotten over 100 favs! Yay!**

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**Naruko's POV**

A small rustle wakes me up. It appears to be late morning; the sun has been up for at least a couple of hours. Someone is nearby. I examine my surroundings subtly, so as not to alert the person of my presence. I am in the middle of a small clearing, sprawled on my back. There is only one person nearby, and it appears to be an androgynous person picking herbs. He/she-it?- has just now noticed me and is heading towards me. To attack? No, just curiosity.

"Boo." I whisper just as the person draws near. They jump back in shock, apparently not expecting me to be awake.

"Just to clear things up, are you male or female? I really can't tell." They look startled, but apparently have enough wits about them to answer.

"Male. And I get that a lot. I get mistaken for a girl fairly frequently. It gets rather annoying." I nod in sympathy.

"It probably comes in handy, too. So who are you and what are you doing in the middle of the forest?" I appear curious and mildly concerned so as not to scare the boy.

"My name is Haku and I came here to gather herbs for my most precious person. He was injured and has almost recovered. What about you?" His response was truthful, so I decided to give a truthful-ish response. Somewhat vague, yes. But truthful nonetheless. Whoever said I had to tell the whole truth?

"I'm Naruko and I came out here because I was upset. I wondered around a little bit and eventually fell asleep over here." Haku nodded.

"I'm glad you didn't run into whatever did this. You probably just missed it." Haku gestures to a decimated tree and I can see others like it nearby. Oops. I _might_ have gotten a _little_ carried away. Oh well. Those trees probably deserved it. Thinking back, I vaguely remember running into a tree. I also remembered making it so that I would never run into that tree again.

Needless to say, my strength training (read: senseless rampage) was a great stress reliever. It felt really great taking out all of my problems on the trees. Although, I really shouldn't lose control like that in the future. Next time there will probably be more serious consequences.

Apparently I had let something show on my face because Haku looked at me in shock.

"Did _you_ cause that much destruction?" I frowned. I thought I didn't have any signs of anything on my face.

"How did you know?" Haku smiled.

"You just told me." I face palmed.

"You have strength, but do you have precious people to protect with that strength?" I contemplated the question. The people (and fox) that I considered precious protected me much more than I could them, while the people that I could protect I didn't quite consider precious yet. I would probably protect those people, but because they needed protecting, not because of my personal opinions on the matter.

"My precious people are more than capable of protecting themselves, but I would protect people regardless of how precious they are to me." Haku looked somewhat disappointed.

"Then try to surpass those precious to you so you can protect them." Haku answered. I decided to word my next answer carefully.

"That'd be a bit difficult. My goal is to surpass my father and inherit his position within the village, but I honestly don't think it's possible for a human to grow stronger than my adoptive older brother." I don't think it's possible to get stronger than a Kyuubi. And to be honest, I don't see a point to ever becoming that strong. It'd probably be boring if nobody was even remotely capable of challenging you.

"You can still protect someone without being stronger than they are." Haku shot out.

"Yes, but will they need it? Or do they just see you as a tool." Haku was in tears now.

"I don't care! I don't care if I'm just a tool as long as I can serve Zabuza-sama!" So this was the fake hunter-nin?

"So you are the fake hunter-nin who saved Zabuza. Don't worry, I won't fight you right now. Our current meeting just so happens to be chance and has nothing to do with either of our missions, so let's not fight. Okay?" Haku nodded. I noticed that he was slightly happy and relieved about my proposal. I decided to take our deal a bit further.

"I have the feeling that we will undoubtedly meet at some time in the future and end out fighting. I don't want to kill you and I don't think that you really want to kill me. Let's make a deal. When we fight in the near future, we will not go for the kill. I will not tell my teammates about this deal, but if you have to fight them, please just knock them out with your senbons, like you did with Zabuza. How does that sound to you?" Haku looked to be deep in thought.

"I agree with those terms, but can we still treat our fight like we would a real battle? I have a feeling that fighting you will be _interesting_ to say the least." I nodded.

"Deal. I look forwards to our next meeting, Haku-chan." We shook on it and left the clearing, neither of us intending to tell our teammates about our meeting.

I could sense Haku from a distance, and I felt his relief at not needing to kill anyone. I smiled, glad that I could protect my teammates from a potentially dangerous foe. My smile remained for the rest of the trip back to Tazuna's house, where Inari informed me that Tazuna and my team had gone out to the bridge. My smile dropped completely when I sensed two new presences full of malicious intent heading towards Tazuna's house.


	17. Situation

**I meant to update sooner, but I was distracted by another one of my stories.**

**Oh yeah, 100 reviews! I could die from happiness! XD**

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**Naruko's POV**

I racked my brain for anything I could do to stop the rapidly approaching foes. I couldn't seal the house against intruders because that would take to long and even if that did work, then they might turn on the nearby village instead. An ambush was a much better option. I could henge some shadow clones to look like Inari and Tsunami, while hiding the real Inari and Tsunami somewhere safe. That could work.

I told them to hide and made the decoys. Why would they attack now? Unless... Unless Zabuza and Haku were going to attack Tazuna today. Zabuza would probably be weakened because odds are he hadn't fully recovered yet, but Haku was also backing Zabuza up. I had to protect Inari and Tsunami, but I was needed on the bridge, too! I couldn't be two places at once!

Oh wait, I most definitely _could_ be two places at once. Or three. Or a hundred. Although a hundred clones with Inari and Tsunami would work against my ambush, a hundred clones at the bridge could provide much needed back up.

I conjure up a bunch of clones and send them all off to the bridge. I stay behind to watch the results of my ambush. The thugs walk into the house, unaware. As soon as they step in, I hear various banging and other fighting noises until my clones drag them out of the house, bound and gagged. The clones disperse, and suddenly _I_ was the one who did all of the fighting. Strange. I file this fact away to be reviewed later.

"You can come out now!" I call out and Inari and Tsunami hesitantly walk out from their hiding places in the bushes. Inari surprises me by apologizing for the other day.

"I'm sorry. Heroes do exist, but they won't help you all the time, even if you're crying and-" Oh no, was he going to deliver some long and sappy speech?

"Yes, yes. I was right, you were wrong, I get it. But tell me this later, when your grandfather _isn't_ in danger and I don't need to save him!" I snap and start running towards the bridge.

As I ran towards the bridge, some of my clones must have dispersed because I was getting a picture of the general situation. Either that or I had finally gone crazy and was visualizing the worst possible scenario. I really hoped it was the second one. Losing all of my sanity was much better than the alternative situation.

Itachi was fighting Zabuza, but neither had gained the upper hand yet. But that was only a matter of time. Sasuke and the clones were fighting Haku and his senbons had brought down most of my clones. Sasuke was definitely outmatched. On top of that, Sakura was guarding Tazuna on her own against two opponents who were far stronger than she was. If I didn't get there soon, we were doomed.

I sent an extra burst of chakra behind me to speed up my progress. I was almost there. I could see the bridge.

I arrived at the bridge and took stock of the situation. All of my shadow clones had been annihilated and Haku and Sasuke were fighting. A strange ice dome was surrounding them. Some of my shadow clones had gone into the dome only to be destroyed immediately by Haku. Haku was in total control of the situation.

Itachi and Zabuza were utterly engrossed in their battle, so Sakura was fine guarding Tazuna for the time being. Zabuza had his hands full with Itachi, but Haku's hands were anything but full. He could kill Tazuna and then the fighting would be unnecessary. It was only a matter of time before he realized that unless he had something to keep him properly distracted.

I slip through the ice dome and stop behind Sasuke. He looks like a ball of nerves. I wonder what would happen if I tapped him on the shoulder...

I do just that and quite frankly found Sasuke's reaction amusing. Sasuke jumped and then spun and tried to punch me. I caught his fist and grinned.

"Now, now Sasuke. You really shouldn't attack a teammate in the middle of a battle." I pout a little to emphasize my point. Sasuke rolls his eyes.

"And you shouldn't startle me like that." He glares the patented Uchiha glare at me.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. You're a _ninja_. Ninjas don't_ get _startled." I shake my head in mock exasperation before switching gears.

"What is the situation here?" Sasuke was startled at my sudden shift in demeanor but didn't comment on it.

"He has an ice kekkai genkai which he is currently using. In the jutsu, he appears in all of the mirrors and then throws senbons from every direction at once. My sharingan has activated and I have also noticed that he is not in multiple places at once, just moving between the mirrors at a high speed." I process the information. He moves at speeds so high that Sasuke can only see with his sharingan activated? Challenge accepted. Between the two of us, I wonder who will be faster...

"I have a plan."

* * *

**FIGHT SCENE NEXT CHAPTER! YAY!**


	18. Stop

**I don't think I'm all that great with fight scenes, but I did my best with this one.**

**On a side note, the best fic recommended to me was Operation: Kill Tobi by TRIGGER M00NSHIELD recommended to me by Radiant Celestial Aura, who should PM me for their one thing that will happen in any of my stories. When said event happens, I will be sure to let everyone know. XD**

* * *

**Naruko's POV**

"You do realize that the odds of your plan working are next to none."

"And what makes you so sure about that, Sasuke?"

"It's highly unlikely that you can go faster than he can."

"Your faith in me is astounding."

"You'd have to be the Yellow Flash to be faster than he is."

"You do realize that you're telling this to his _daughter_, right? And I don't see you coming up with any better ideas. Let's try this before he attacks while we're strategizing." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Let's do this." I smirk triumphantly while Sasuke activates his sharingan.

"Above you!" I take that as my cue and jump. I hover in the air, waiting for Sasuke's next directions.

"To the left!" I take off, then Sasuke shouts again.

"Your other left!" Okay, so I may have a slight problem with left and right. It would probably be easier at this point in my plan to randomly run through the air in the ice dome and hope to attain the speed Haku is at and find him or just hope that I accidentally run into him.

I start my plan and before long, I can see Haku running through the air. (1) I am moving at a much faster speed than he is, but I put on an extra burst of speed, just in case.

Then time stops.

I can see Haku, frozen in the act of throwing more senbons at Sasuke and even a few frozen in mid air. Sasuke's eyes are wide in shock. Evidently, he can see the senbons heading straight for him. I walk over to the senbons and knock them off their path. Or at least, I try to. My hand passes straight through the senbons. Outside of the dome, I see a bright yellow light. What could that be? Curious, I leave the dome and investigate. The light is coming from something Itachi has around his neck. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be one of my father's tri-pronged kunai. I lift the chain from around his neck before examining it. I sit down next to Sakura and inspect it. The yellow light is coming from the handle. I touch the handle and the yellow light expands outwards.

I feel like something splits inside of me. Everything hurts. From every fiber of my body, I feel pain. I can hear Kurama howling in pain, and maybe I am screaming too, and the last thing I remember before falling unconscious is my vision turning red.

* * *

**Sasuke's POV**

What is Naruko doing? Wasn't the idea she can catch him, but only I can see him. I can't believe she completely disregarded her own plan that quickly. Although now that I think about it, her plan would only have worked if she had a sense of direction. And that is one thing that she does not have. At all.

Naruko appears to have spotted the enemy ninja, and I also turn my attention to him. My eyes widen as I see him throwing another volley of senbon when suddenly, an inhuman scream penetrates the air. The other ninja and I share a glance (which somehow works even though he's wearing a mask) and hold off our fight in order to investigate. I look around for Naruko, but she wasn't in the dome. She probably already left.

The other ninja and I run towards the source of the scream to find Naruko, convulsing on the ground with a red aura surrounding her. Lying next to her is a three pronged kunai.

"Sasuke-kun, what happened to Naruko?" Sakura looks close to tears.

"What happened?"

"I don't know! She just suddenly appeared and started screaming!" Itachi walked forwards and placed a seal on Naruko. Instantly the screaming stopped, or rather, Naruko _stopped_. The seal seemed to freeze her in mid scream, and the red aura surrounding her remained.

"Itachi-sensei, what did that seal do?" Sakura asked.

"It was designed to hold her and the kyuubi in stasis in case the seal broke to buy time for a new seal to be created. When the new seal is ready, this seal will be removed and I will control the kyuubi while the new seal is applied." With that explanation, it sounds like...

"It sounds as though the only reason you became a jounin sensei was to watch the seal." Sakura finished my train of thought for me.

"It was a long term mission." So Itachi didn't quit ANBU! Father was proud that he quit being in ANBU and became my jounin sensei, and in hindsight, I should have known that Itachi loved ANBU too much even to quit, even for me. Itachi would probably kill the entire clan for an ANBU mission. Whether or not he'd kill me is debatable, but I wouldn't put it past him.

"So that's all it was to you. A mission. Teaching me was only a mission to you."

"This may be part of my mission, but training you was _personal_. I would have found the time to teach you even if I didn't have you on my team."

"Stop it, both of you!" Sakura yelled.

"We have other priorities right now, besides fighting amongst ourselves."

"Exactly right. But it's too late now." Another voice broke in. Everyone turned to see who it was. A small man stood in front of a large mob of thugs.

"Gato." Tazuna breathed. I could just imagine Naruko commenting that Gato was a bit unimpressive considering he was in charge of a big business.

"Kill the bridge builder and the man with the sword. You can kill the rest, but those two are the only ones I'll pay you for killing."

"It appears your mission is now null and void. Allies?" Zabuza grinned a shark like grin.

"Sure. Haku, the leaf-nin are on our side now." The thugs attacked and as they rushed, Itachi gave his orders.

"Sakura, Sasuke, protect Tazuna and Naruko." Sakura and I moved into a defensive position and were joined by Haku. The onslaught of thugs came, but never reached us. Working together, Itachi and Zabuza were a fearsome combination. In a couple of minutes all of the thugs were taken care of except for Gato who was about to stab a knife into an unsuspecting Zabuza's back.

Before he could, Haku appeared in between them and the knife went straight into his heart.

* * *

(1) In case you are wondering how Naruko can now see Haku when Sasuke needed the sharingan to see him, it's a case of relativity. To Sasuke (who is not moving), Haku is difficult to see because he is moving at a far greater speed than Sasuke is. On the other hand, Naruko is moving at an equal or greater speed to Haku and can therefore see him because they are moving at relatively similar speeds.


	19. Why

**Sakura's POV**

I watch, horrified, as the knife finds its way straight into Haku's heart. The only thought that went through my head was _why?_

_Why did Gato have to betray Zabuza? Why did he have to stab Tazuna in the back? Why did Haku have to pay for it? Why can't I do anything to help him? Why am I just standing here while everyone else is doing something? Why am I so useless? Why couldn't I save Naruko or Haku?_

Zabuza beheads Gato, but it's still useless in the long run because Haku is still fatally wounded.

_Why does the chain of violence never stop? Why does everybody take part in it only to get hurt? Why must there be so much pain?_

Zabuza is pleading for Haku to hang on to life, saying that they were going to take down the Mizukage together. It's no use and Haku finally slips away from life, a faint smile on his face.

"Why did you want to take down the Mizukage?" Only when everybody turned to look at me did I realize that I had said that out loud. Itachi explains it to me.

"After the last war, Kiri has taken a policy of hunting down and killing bloodline holders." That's stupid, if that happened in Konoha, Sasuke and Itachi would be hunted down. It probably wouldn't succeed though, because a lot of people, with and without bloodlines would fight against it.

"Are there others out there, fighting against it?" This time Zabuza spoke up.

"Yes. There is a resistance movement, but I never bothered joining it."

"Why?" Zabuza chuckled.

"The leader and I are actually rivals. I told her that I would build a better resistance than she would, but she ended out outdoing me. The only member of my rebel group was Haku, while hers was made up of practically every missing nin from Kiri."

"Join it, if only for the fact that you can help other bloodline users like Haku in the future." Sasuke chose to speak up, leaving Zabuza looking thoughtful.

"I hadn't thought of it that way. I think I shall try to find her after Haku is finally laid to rest." Sasuke hned in response.

"Don't take it personally if we don't stay for the funeral. We should head back to Konoha as soon as possible so that Naruko can receive medical attention." Itachi looked genuinely apologetic.

"I understand. What's wrong with the kid, anyways?" Itachi's next words were grave and scared me.

"I don't know."

* * *

Ironically enough, the bridge was dubbed the Naruko Bridge, but I had no idea what Naruko would think about that. Sasuke and I agreed that we both wanted to see the look on her face when she found out. We hurried back to Konoha as quickly as possible, only stopping once to get a small stuffed Kyuubi. I thought Naruko would appreciate it. Sasuke only smirked when I showed it to him.

As soon as the village gates were in sight, Itachi stopped us and we took a moment to strategize.

"Okay, so we are heading into a mission even more dangerous than the one we just took." Wait, weren't A-Ranks the highest level?

"Wasn't the one we just did an A-Rank?" Itachi nodded.

"That was an A-Rank, but this is a S-Rank with a low survival rate." Sasuke stared incredulously at Itachi.

"What could possibly be that dangerous? This is Konoha we're talking about here."

"I call it Operation: Mission Report." What could be so dangerous about that?

"How is that dangerous?"

"We'll have to put into the report to the Yondaime that Naruko was injured." Everyone paled, except for Naruko, who was blissfully unaware in her frozen state and being carried by Itachi.

"We're doomed." Sasuke and I said simultaneously. Itachi nodded.

"That we are."

* * *

**This chapter's a bit shorter, but only because of the next chapter, where what happened to Naruko will finally be revealed. Most likely. *laughs evilly* Yeah, I'm completely evil, in case you haven't noticed. :)**

**I wonder if anybody can guess what happened...**


	20. Operation: Mission Report

**Okay, so school will be starting soon and I will only be able to regularly update one of my stories, as opposed the three I currently have. There's a poll up on my profile that I recommend voting on.**

* * *

**Minato's POV**

I was tackling my usual mountain of paperwork when Team Seven came through the door.

"How was your first C-Rank?" I asked cheerily before noticing that Naruko was missing.

"Where's Naruko?" I asked in the same cheery tone of voice, and only the noticeable temperature drop in the room gave away what would happen if they gave a bad answer. But really, I wasn't leaking out _that_ much killing intent. Just enough to scare an ex-ANBU jounin. I was perfectly capable of leaking out more KI than that, and I was more than willing to do that if say, Team Seven's C-Rank was really an A-Rank and Naruko were to get seriously injured on the mission.

"In the hospital." Itachi muttered almost inaudibly. I sent out a bit more KI.

"Oh, she is? And why would that be?" All three of them gulped. Sasuke somehow summoned the nerve to answer.

"The mission turned out to be a bit more difficult than expected and in the middle of a fight she disappeared and reappeared next to Sakura with one of your kunai." So the Namikaze bloodline had awakened in her earlier than expected. Impressive. I allowed myself to feel a small surge of pride for Naruko's achievement before getting back to business.

"That doesn't explain why she's in the hospital." I narrowed my eyes menacingly. Really, once you hit kage-level, it becomes so easy to intimidate others you don't even have to try very hard!

"She collapsed afterwards and is in the hospital for further watching." Itachi stepped in for Sasuke, who was not up to facing the brunt of my KI, reduced as it was.

"It's just a formality, so why bother sending her there until after the report?" And the verbal trap snapped closed.

"Um, she may or may not still be unconscious?" Sakura answered. Was I ever going to get a straight answer here?

"You know, the fewer straight answers I get, the angrier I become. Now tell me, _what happened to Naruko_?" I sent out more killing intent just to get my point across.

"After she teleported, her seal became unstable and her body began to reject the Kyuubi. I put a temporary stasis seal on her that was issued to me when I became her sensei." Okay, this was not good. Definitely not good. I needed to check on Naruko's seal _now_, but I also needed a full mission report, which would probably take an hour of interrogations on my part. _Interrogations_. Hmm...

Team Seven (minus Naruko) began subtly backing away from me when they noticed the sadistic smile on my face. In an instant, I had them tied up and brought them to the T&I Department under orders to get the full mission report but not do any permanent damage. I slipped the last bit in after Ibiki's face looked downright murderous after he found out what happened to Naruko.

I then rushed over to the hospital while wondering if I could just send anyone making a mission report over to T&I. It wouldn't work, I concluded, because most ninja would be too terrified to take a mission instead of volunteering for them outside of the line of duty, which would lead Konoha into an economic slump.

I strode through the hospital effortlessly, only intercepted once by a terrified looking nurse who said visiting hours were over. I gave her a look that said '_Do you really think you can stop me?_' It's amazing how well that works. It really is.

I took a look at Naruko's seal. Then looked again to make sure I was seeing things right (I was). Then I berated myself for my absolute stupidity in creating a seal that couldn't withstand distortions within the fabric of space. Naruko used the Hiraishin, which is basically moving at a speed so fast, the fabric of time and space distorts, leaving the user in a frozen parallel universe that the only way to escape from was to either a) stop moving or b) have a special seal on hand that summons you back to the real world. If I had been thinking ahead, I would have made the seal sturdier so that the dimensional travel wouldn't unravel the seal and let kyuubi escape. Stupid.

The problem was that kyuubi's soul had already escaped and I couldn't seal it back inside Naruko. I'd have to take off the entire seal to put it back in. Which would mean a giant fox running around in Konoha that wouldn't take kindly to being resealed. Troublesome, as a Nara would put it. I could seal the soul in an inanimate object, most likely along with the small portion of the chakra that escaped the sealing. I could then make the necessary adjustments to Naruko's seal and I didn't have to make an entirely new seal.

My gaze landed on the small kyuubi plushy at Naruko's bedside and I smirked. I couldn't help it. I just found the irony of the situation inescapable. I'd have to make some more adjustments to the seal to keep the kyuubi on a tight leash, but it'd be worth it if my idea worked. I began the resealing process and then waited for them to wake up.

* * *

**Naruko's POV**

I woke up to yelling and crashing noises.

"You damn bastard! You are dead for putting me in this _container_! Dead!" There was laughter.

"I'm sorry, but you're just so cute when you're trying to threaten me like that!" I cracked my eyes open to see my dad being threatened by... A small kyuubi plushy?

"If I weren't in such a degrading container, I would have eaten you by now!" The fox plushy was speaking in a voice that sounded just like Kurama's. Was this some sort of strange dream?

"But that was why I put you in there in the first place!" Okay, I had absolutely no idea what was going on at this point.

"Umm... What's going on?" The calamity was put to a sudden halt.

"Took you long enough to get up, brat."

"Don't call her a brat!"

"And why not? She's my container, so I can call her whatever I want to call her." Before it could escalate into a full blown argument I decided to intervene.

"What's going on?"

"Well you see, _brat_, my soul got loose and your father had the _brilliant idea_ of sealing it inside of a stuffed animal. And now I'm stuck like this!" I rolled my eyes.

"Can you do ninjutsu in that form?" Kurama looked perplexed.

"I think so..."

"Then henge yourself into a different form!" Kurama looked like he hadn't thought of that. After a couple of minutes, he still hadn't henged.

"Let me guess, you can't decide what you want to look like."

"Who knew coming up with something like this could be so hard?" Then he looked like a burst of inspiration hit him.

"Brat, I just thought of a form that looks like he could be your older brother, is capable of striking fear of men, and will piss off the bastard who sealed me."

"Okay, but at least you have full control now of your new body and aren't stuck in my head. But let's see it, Kura-chan."

Kurama transformed into a teen who looked to be about sixteen or so with spiky blond hair and blue eyes. He had whisker like birthmarks that stretched across his cheeks, giving him a rather foxy appearance. He frowned as he examined his clothes, which was a bulky orange jumpsuit, then transformed again so that he was wearing a simple black t-shirt and jeans.

"That's better. I don't know why I was wearing something as horrible as that."

"Okay, you've had your fun, but the idea of someone walking around Konoha looking like me is not particularly appealing, so change back."

"No. This is the human form I chose so deal with it." As the two started bickering, I had a feeling that this was far from the last argument they were going to have.

* * *

**For some reason, multiple people reviewed saying that Operation: Mission Report deserved more than one S. I really enjoyed reading those reviews. :)**


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